Turns out Nicole White’s account of her son being taken by a Transportation Security Administration officer did not line up with reality. Now the truth squad is coming after White, her site has been taken down and the young mother appears to have gone into hiding.
I have a little advice for White. And for the TSA. And for anyone reading this who is worried they might be separated from their child at the airport.
But before I continue, a disclaimer: My sympathies are with this young lady. Some of you have openly asked why I’m not as “hard” on her as I would be on a travel company that screws up. That’s easy to answer. I’m an advocate for the consumer, not the corporation.
But I’ve also been in White’s shoes in the past, having published facts that I believed to be true, but weren’t. I know what it feels like. If White took her site down, I can’t blame her. If she’s hiding in the military housing complex she lives in with her husband and son, and doesn’t feel like talking with anyone about this, I totally understand.
First, though, I wanted to address anyone traveling with kids, and afraid a TSA agent might try to take their offspring …
✓ Stop worrying. TSA officers are not interesting in swiping your kiddies.
✓ If you’re in a city with child-friendly TSA checkpoints, like Orlando, use ‘em. The officers have a lot of experience dealing with families with children. They’ll make sure everything goes smoothly.
✓ Relax. The most high-profile accounts of TSA abusing families with children (here’s another one) have ended up being overblown.
As for White …
✓ Bring your site back up as soon as possible. Then tell us what happened. What really happened. Was that you in the video? Are we missing something? What did the TSA officer say to you when you were being given a secondary screening? Why was the TSA’s version of events so dramatically different from yours?
✓ Please return the TSA’s call. They’re trying to get in touch with you, according to several accounts. You should talk.
✓ Drop the F-bombs. The gratuitous profanity in your blog isn’t helping your credibility.
✓ Move on. This isn’t the end of the world. So your story doesn’t match the events in the video. Tell us why, and then get on with your life. You’re a gifted writer and blogger. This is nothing more than a bump in the road.
And to my friends at the TSA …
✓ White’s case could have been handled better. You had her waiting in that plastic cage for a good long while. With her toddler. Seriously, I think we can all understand why she might be a little agitated.
✓ What took you so long to respond to her blog post? I knew that you had the video at 6:30 p.m. last night, but you didn’t publish it until 11 p.m. You can’t wait half a day to react to a viral story like this.
✓ Why did you blur the section of video where White was being given a secondary screening? It looks as if you’re trying to hide something.
At the risk of repeating myself, TSA appeared to handle White’s screening by the book. I see no evidence in its video that it was abusive or in any way out of line.
I’m disappointed but at the same time relieved that White’s account was so dramatically different from what’s seen on the TSA video. I think — I hope — this can be a teaching moment. For all of us.
(Photo: william couch/Flickr Creative Commons)
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Sympathy for this lying psycho? I don’t understand that. What she did is inexcusable. If someone actually is abused during the process, who will believe them now? This Nic is not unlike the Heene family, using their child for their own publicity. It’s sick. She’s sick.
@Tammy and others who are commenting now, just a reminder that I wrote this post before Nic posted her “apology.”
My brother, who is a chief of police, did have his toddler separated from him by the TSA in a horrible experience at the Denver Airport. He was placed in the isolation box and his toddler daughter was left crying and banging on the box – on the outside. I’m sure this is an exception, but this particular incident was handled very poorly and caused an inexcusable amount of stress for everyone involved. It is particularly ironic since my brother is a trained anti-terror specialist. You will note that he did not create an obscenity ladened website to commemorate the event
well kudos to your brother for using common sense ; and having lots of class which this nit wit did not
The funniest part of her so-called “apology” is that she *still* maintains the worst aspect of story is true: that a TSA agent took away her child.
Unless the time line of the video is completely wrong and there is actual missing footage, even her apology just continues the fabrication.
This is not an apology that should be accepted because she has really admitted nothing.
What is it about talking about children.
Their precious children.
That makes people write like idiots?
Devedander
First of all….I went to those extremes to prove how ridiculous some of the comments have been towards this woman.
*That someone on Xanax cant be a responsible person
*That someone clearly upset can have some details “off”
Your comment about having emergency medication is clearly wrong. Some people may have a need to have emergency Xanax, emergency epi-pens, emergency inhalers….Just because its Xanax doesnt mean or equal this to an emergency bottle of booze. And while were on THIS particular part of your reply…I know several diabetics who not only need emergency insulin, but emergency snacks as well–now what were you saying about an emergency cupcake?….Guess this is the same as well?
AND….just because someone goes to a therapist doesnt mean shes unstable. My children went to therapy because of family deaths….does that make any of them unstable? Again….you are quick to judge someone based on generalizations.
Ive ranted about things on my blog, and have posted said blogs on twitter….NEVER have those posts gotten this type of attention. Ive lambasted all types of horrible service and facilities in my time…and still-never had a response.
Does TSA do a search in the same way Comcast does on twitter? In this same way, complain about Comcast….and some “rep” replies to you butting into your business on occasion?
As to attempting to take pictures in or around an airport, this simply doesnt apply to me. I do not fly. I am aware that even with a doctors note, I would be perceived in some way and then put out to pasture online. I will not subject myself to having anyone I do not wish-place their hands on me. I dont break the law, so therefore, I should never be subjected to search by any police officer.
You can do all the research in the world about me, but there are a few things Ill admit off the bat. I do not drink beyond a toast at midnight on New Years and I have a tendency to be a smart aleck….Ya wanna call whatever agency on me….by all means….seems like yall wanna pass judgement on each other.
BUT do not attempt to say that my credibility to comment on a post is “shattered” by me taking your comments to a level at which they seem on the surface. Im just pointing out your self righteousness.
The search is probably blurred to prevent “bad guys” from having footage of TSA procedures. Yes, this seems silly, but I’ll bet you it’s just bureaucratic process and CYA.
Re: blurred footage. Probably twofold reasons, yes what DV said, and also probably to provide a bit of modesty for the passenger being searched. I can hear her screaming now about how the TSA not only separated her from her kid, searched her and then “broadcast her to the world in humiliating positions”
I can’t believe she still holds on to the lies about her kid being taken from her, and the phone calls she didn’t make… The time stamps show this is the complete episode. You could clearly see the male screener do a quick pat down of the kid WHILE SHE HELD HIM!!!
I hope all of this whacko’s readers, and potential future readers, see her for the lying fear mongerer she appears to be.
sorry Annie ; you were correct ,both valium and xanax are inthe benzo class; I live and work in DelrayBeach FL; better known as the drug rehab capitol of the world ; filled with rehab centers which have a thirty percent sucess rate; halfway houses unliscenced, which tend to be slums ; and the abuses of alchohol and drug mixing; xanax is a well tolerated drug for many disorders epilepsy being one , and anxiety disorders ; however I have seen to many people seriously abuse both; and land up in mental institutions; kinda of well kept secret ; Delray does not care for that image of drug rehab center of the world .
“Stop worrying. TSA officers are not interesting in swiping your kiddies.”
-1 for you for missing the point. (In case you’re unsure, the point is that if someone takes a child from view, they could easily lose track of the child. The blogger isn’t afraid the TSA will sell the child on the black market, she’s afraid that a government employee, who answers to absolutely no one at all, might take and subsequently lose her child.)
“This is nothing more than a bump in the road.”
If everyone just moves on, the problem gets worse, or at least doesn’t go away.
Maybe if we write a letter to the CEO and to the consumerist, the airport will employ a different security com… Oh wait.
It’s the government.
We don’t get ANYWHERE with our complaints unless we raise unholy hell. It even took Ted Kennedy three calls to Tom Ridge to get his name off the watch list.
“Seriously, I think we can all understand why she might be a little agitated.”
Even saying this is kind of silly.
In the 80’s and 90’s, if an officer wanted to… “toy” with you, they worked you up. Now, they routinely go straight to filing assault charges. It’s gotten to the point where police can sucker punch an old man from behind and claim that HE assaulted THEM when it’s on Youtube! (David Snyder).
The TSA can’t do that… yet. They’re tired, had a bad day. In the same situation, a cop can take it out on anyone and get away with it. A TSA agent, who is not at that point yet, needs a tool… a mechanism… to accomplish the same thing.
It’s their inefficiency. It’s making a woman drink her own breast milk, yanking a diabetic’s pump off of his person, or delaying people from boarding their flights IN ORDER TO escalate the situation. That’s what they WANT to do, and it’s what they’ll continue to do!
(Don’t believe me? Just wait. I’ll bet you my paycheck that incidents with the TSA will continue unabated.)
If someone needs to carry an emergency Xanax in their jean pocket at all times, then maybe that individual should not travel alone, with her baby, knowing that any stressful event could become traumatic.
Blurred Footage.
The TSA is probably astute enough to know that if this story get’s wide coverage, SHE (not necessarily the TSA) is going to become to target of pranksters and farkers and photoshoppers the world over.
The wand has to pass up and down the inner thigh – from both front and from behind. And an agent may be bending over near or, or kneeling in front.
Now Watch This: one second of footage UP. One second of footage DOWN. Loop-n-Repeat, and viola! Instant humiliation.
They did this for her protection, not their own.
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