TSA Graduates from Groping to Slut-Shaming

Even in the current season of alphabet-soup scandals (IRS, NSA, DOJ), The Transportation Security Adminstration (TSA) is arguably the most-reviled and least-respected of all government agencies. Here's more fuel on that fire.

Mark Frauenfelder, the editor in chief of Make magazine and one of the founders of BoingBoing, writes that a TSA screener at LAX took it upon himself to instruct his 15-year-old daughter on how to dress.

She is traveling with a group of high school students on a college tour and we were not with her when he verbally abused her.

Here's what happened, as my daughter described it in text messages to us: she was at the station where the TSA checks IDs. She said the officer was "glaring" at her and mumbling. She said, "Excuse me?" and he said, "You're only 15, COVER YOURSELF!" in a hostile tone. She said she was shaken up by his abusive manner.

I'm including the above photo of the outfit my daughter was wearing when the TSA officer shamed her. It doesn't matter what she was wearing, though, because it's none of his business to tell girls what they should or should not wear. His creepy thoughts are his own problem, and he shouldn't use his position of authority as an excuse to humiliate a girl and blame her for his sick attitude.

The incident happened yesterday morning.

My wife and I met with the TSA at LAX and they are opening an investigation. The supervising officer we met with, Officer Murphy, was apologetic, concerned, and professional. He cc'd me on his incident report to his manager and it looks like they are taking this seriously, which is good to know.

More, including updates as they happen, here.

As someone who flies basically every week, I've seen my share of unprofessional TSA behavior, but it usually involves workers hanging out, flirting or goofing with each other, and ignoring passengers (the low point came once at Reagan National Airport where a couple of workers were snapping the bra straps of each other through their uniforms). But I've never heard of an agent actively insulting what someone was wearing until this.

I can appreciate how difficult it must be to ensure professional behavior in an agency that employs over 65,000 people. Despite the relatively high wages offered by TSA, the agency has been reduced to advertising for workers on gas pumps and pizza boxes, according to a 2011 congressional report that concluded the TSA had not actually increased the safety of air travel. As with any franchise operation that tries to enforce and guarantee the same customer experience in any given branch location, that's why training and ongoing supervision is so important. Of course, with most franchises—McDonald's, say, or Starbucks—you can always walk out if you don't like the way you're being treated. There's no right of exit from TSA checkpoints, which only leaves voice and loyalty.

Watch "44 Ways to Say TSA" to learn what the initials TSA really stand for: