Woman sues TSA over strip search at Oklahoma airport

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

LAS VEGAS — A Las Vegas woman has sued the Transportation Security Administration after she says they made her strip down in Oklahoma before a flight back to Nevada, KTNV reports.

Rhonda Mengert says in her lawsuit she was traveling through Tulsa International Airport on Mother's Day when an implant in her hip set off the metal detector, The TV station reported.

Mengert said she agreed to be pat down by a TSA agent. During the search, the agent found a "common feminine hygiene product" that she was wearing underneath her clothes.

Mengert told KNTV that TSA agents then took her to a private room and asked her to strip down and expose her genitals. The lawsuit says they then instructed her to remove the feminine hygiene product.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/woman-sues-tsa-over-strip-search-at-oklahoma-airport/ar-AACBNSB?li=BBnb7Kz

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Omigod! Sue the dickens out of these criminals. They had NO RIGHT. n/t

[oregonjen]

2. A friend of mine was traveling for business and had to be searched because of her pad

Another way to “legally” violate women. I hope she wins her case!

[PJMcK]

3. Sorry for my ignorance

What kind of feminine hygiene product will set off a metal detector?

Thanks, in advance.

[scarletwoman]

6. It was the implant in her hip that set off the metal detector. n/t

[PJMcK]

8. Thanks

I was lazy and didn’t read the linked article.

My first thought was a chastity device or something even weirder!

[mr_lebowski]

7. The story says a hip implant set off the detector (nt)

[PJMcK]

9. Thank you

I didn’t read the article, only the DU excerpt.

Frankly, it kind of scared me! The woman’s violation is terrible, of course, but I shuddered about a metallic tampon!

[Ms. Toad]

11. Tampons in wrappers do.

The wrappers in some versions contain enough metal to set them off - my spouse was subjected to a search once because a wrapped tampon she was carrying set off the detector. Fortunately, it was just the normal intrusive pat-down, not a strip search.

That said - I wonder if the woman was carrying an implant card. (I have one, for my newly acquired titanium rod, but my doctor didn't offer it - I had to ask for it. I'll get to test it it 2 weeks.)

[MaryMagdaline]

4. Good god. We are a nation of idiot fascists

[mr_lebowski]

5. This sounds despicable, I hope she wins ... but the story should be clarified ...

"Mengert told KNTV that TSA agents then took her to a private room and asked her to strip down and expose her genitals. The lawsuit says they then instructed her to remove the feminine hygiene product."

The only hygiene product worn under the clothes that could be detected in a pat-down is a pad. In order for one's genitals to be exposed, one would, by definition, already have removed the pad.

Not that this changes the horror of the situation, but the order of events should be described accurately in the story.

[Ms. Toad]

12. Pads are generally stuck to panties by adhesive.

They may have required her to remove it from the panties.

OR - she may have been wearing an old-fashioned or post-surgical/childbirth version that is held in place using a belt-like device (that device would leave her genitals covered even with underwear removed).

ETA: Here's the complaint: https://tsaoutofourpants.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/mengert-v.-tsa-complaint-filed.pdf

It appears I was correct in my initial interpretation.

The screeners informed Mengert that she was to take down her pants and underwear down to her knees and remove the feminine hygiene product for their visual inspection.

[mr_lebowski]

13. Right, the kind attached to panties is the only kind this ol' guy knows about ...

So I was confused in the 'order of events'.

Sound like they actually also asked her to remove it from her panties as well, after dropping her drawers?!?

I mean ... COME ON? How is that possibly necessary? What kind of sick f***s would require this of someone?

I really hope it was an all-female crew here or someone needs to go to jail, big time.

[Ms. Toad]

14. Someone needs to go to jail, regardless of their gender

but there's absolutely no justification for making her remove it from her panties.

It seems to be targeting women - which is a bit odd, since men (and women) of the same age are incontinent & wear similar pads. The reports seem to suggest they are exclusively subjecting women to this humiliation. That would make a nice gender discrimniation case, on top of due process claims.

As to the kind or pads - the ones attached to the belts were back from the era when stockings were mostly held up by garters - back in the era when women were pretty secretive about such things.

[marble falls]

10. This was extra special treatment. Sue big, win big!

[Beaverhausen]

15. Has the TSA ever found anything with these searches?

Anything that justifies this continued intrusion?