While I’m not totally down with what the kids are wearing these days, I do remember quite well being asked if I honestly thought I was “going out of the house dressed like that.” And from the photo one dad has posted of what his daughter was wearing when she says a Transportation Security Administration agent humiliated her and told her “You’re only 15, cover yourself,” a flannel shirt and stretch pants would likely never have elicited that parental reaction.

Then again, the TSA agent probably didn’t realize she was the teenage daughter of Boing Boing’s founder, someone who knows how to get the word out on the Internet, to say the least.

Mark Frauenfelder relays his daughter’s story on his site, saying she was traveling without her family with fellow high schoolers on a college tour. The group was going through LAX when, as he writes:

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.

After the Internet furor over a TSA agent telling anyone what they should or should not be wearing, Frauenfelder says the TSA is opening an investigation, and that the officer he and his wife met with “was apologetic, concerned, and professional.”

The TSA has subsequently released a statement on the incident as well, via The Huffington Post:

TSA officers are trained and expected to perform screening methods in a dignified and respectful manner at all times. We work to make our screening procedures as minimally invasive as possible while providing the highest level of security for the traveling public.
We regret that this passenger had an unpleasant experience and are in the process of thoroughly reviewing the circumstances.

LAX TSA officer shames my 15-year-old daughter for her outfit [Boing Boing]

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