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Mother Outraged Over TSA's Treatment of Young Son at D/FW Airport

A mother is "livid" after she said her young son was detained for more than an hour at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Sunday morning.

Jennifer Williamson posted a video on Facebook Sunday that shows her son, Aaron, being patted down by a TSA agent in the security line.

In the post, Williamson writes that she asked TSA agents to screen her son in "other ways" because he has Sensory Processing Disorder. Those who suffer from the condition can be overly sensitive to environmental stimuli, such as sounds, lights and textures.

The video shows the TSA agent patting Aaron down thoroughly along his back from his neck to his knees. The agent then pats down the front of Aaron's body, including the front of his shorts, his waistband and in between his thighs. The agent is then seen checking the boy's waistband again and patting down the front of his shorts for a second time. 

Williamson said that two DFW Airport police officers were also called in to pat down her son, "flanking him on each side."

"He set off NO alarms. He physically did not alarm at all during screening, he passed through the detector just fine," she said, adding that several hours later her son is still saying "I don't know what I did. What did I do?"

Williamson said her family was "treated like dogs" and that "these power tripping TSA agents who are traumatizing children and doing whatever they feel like without any cause, need to be reined in."

She noted that the video only shows a portion of the interaction with TSA agents, and wished she had recorded it from the beginning "because it was horrifying." The incident also caused them to miss their flight.

The TSA released the following statement in response:

"TSA allows for a pat-down of a teenage passenger, and in this case, all approved procedures were followed to resolve an alarm of the passenger’s laptop.

"The video shows a male TSA officer explaining the procedure to the passenger, who fully cooperates. Afterward, the TSA officer was instructed by his supervisor, who was observing, to complete the final step of the screening process.

"In total, the pat-down took approximately two minutes, and was observed by the mother and two police officers who were called to mitigate the concerns of the mother.

"The passengers were at the checkpoint for approximately 45 minutes, which included the time it took to discuss screening procedures with the mother and to screen three carry-on items that required further inspection."

After a former Dallas radio host criticized D/FW Airport and TSA on Twitter, calling the pat down "pedophilia not security," the airport wrote: "@CarlaMarionNews @TSA We understand your concerns and we have notified @AskTSA. To file a formal complaint, visit: https://www.tsa.gov/contact/customer-service"

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