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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thank you for this post. i have been traveling for the last 24 hours and just recently got internet in my hotel room. i will be posting a response to your questions and others shortly.
“Drop the F-bombs. The gratuitous profanity in your blog isn’t helping your credibility.”
Um, no. People can say what they want to in personal blogs. If it was for employment purposes then I can understand. But she can say whatever she wants to. I am certainly never thinking about credibility when blogging about something happening in my life.
I love you to pieces, Chris, but I can’t agree with your sympathy for
“Neurotic Nic”. TSA has a hard enough job without having to deal with libelous statements by delusional people. It’s fortunate that TSA had that video to defend themselves, or NO ONE would have believed them. So, “Nic” has taken down her site? Good! Here’s hoping that TSA sues her, and takes her bank account down a bit, too.
Perhaps she was taking medication; I am sure it had to be carefully supervised; you mention xanax which is a highly controlled substance and is stictly or should be acompetent physcian; perhaps this clouded your pereptions of events; need I say more
from the sounds of it, nicole white may’ve been overexagerating… i tad bit… I can’t be upset with her, based on the fact that even though she didnt post the whole truth, it doesnt make her lose all credibility. The tsa footage is cut in places, so it is very possible that hte baby was taken and they never published it. They dont know for sure that its infact nicole white, according to the tsa blogger guy, it matched pictures, but that doesnt mean a whole lot. the security cameras are pretty grainy, and so you can’t garentee that its a match. However it sounds like it probably is a match as nicole white appears to be in virtual hiding.
It could also be that the TSA agents treated her (like they often do to poeple) like dirt, and she wanted to raise some dirt in they’re direction (which i completely understand)
Barbie -
Xanax isnt “strictly controlled”. In fact, anyone can go into a doctor’s office, say they’re having a bad day, and pick some up. There are many more potent anti-anxieties out there. Xanax is a tic tac compared to what I’m on.
passing through not true at all; it is a controlled substance; in fact the former gov of Florida daughter was incacerated for her abuse of this medication; i dont know what kind of doctor you go to however check with any pharmasist; hofefully you have heard if pill shopping very common in South Florida; it is supposed to be stricyly supervised because of it is highly addictive and withdrawal is very difficult; also for her behavior she must have had quite a bit of it not just one or .two
FYI the Xanax reference came from the original blog. She said she carried “emergency Xanax” for panic attacks.
There is a larger video available of the screening. It is in an update here. It is compelling in a larger format. The stroller and the adult are very easy to match when you look at her photos in the Flikr Stream or the Twit Pic Stream. The kid looks like a match too, but they all look alike anyway to a certain degree.
She (via an intermediary) has claimed the site crashed due to traffic. That is incorrect. The site has been modified to display a black screen. Had it crashed from traffic there would be browser errors. Additionally, we have copies of her traffic reports that show that the site is indeed up and receiving hits. Crashed sites do not track hits.
She has said she will blog the explanation. I for one am curious to hear how it will play out. I suspect she will say it is not here and just stick with the story. Or possibly, blame a medical issue on it (probably safer) to say she was either under or over medicated.
People are questioning if the person in the video is “Nic” but do you honestly believe TSA would have posted it if they hadn’t (a) checked their records so they corresponded with the woman in question then matched them up with the video and (b) consulted with lawyers before putting it out there. I’d say if anything, TSA has thier butts covered and wouldn’t be publishing a video on the internet if they weren’t 100% sure it was the person who blogged. Regarding what happened? I’ll wait to hold any sort of judgement until I read Nic’s response.
They blurred that section because I believe they are required to. They blurred it for the same reason they took her to a seperate area to do the searching — because sometimes it can get a little personal and believe it or not, TSA does believe in protecting peoples privacy
Wow, I’m sure the poor girl was traumatized by the whole ordeal anyway. Sounds like she has panic attacks, which can make any situation a bad situation. My prayers go out to her and her family.
Seriously….yall gonna say TSA blurred out that footage based on protecting privacy? Looked to me like anyone passing by – Including males – could have seen everything occurring. Hows that private?
There’s no doubt that its her in the video. Most of the events she described in her blog post coincide with what was going on in the video. MOST of them. Yes, she was in that Plexiglass cage. Yes, she waved to TSA agents. Yes, she asked some strange woman to move her things off of the conveyor belt.
But what didn’t match up is the stuff about the child being out of her sight. The male TSA agent appears to be speaking to or attempting to search the child then we see this woman strapping the child into the stroller.
My guess is that the reason for the blurring during the second search is because she was asked to unbutton her jeans.
She’s delusional. Either she’s got that Munchausen by proxy thing and is using her child for attention or she hallucinated this whole incident.
I think the fact that she’s so quick to sell her story to the media is a good indicator of her intentions.
She’s a fraud and she should be held accountable.
I’m just now catching up on this story and perhaps my take has been shaded by ensuing developments, but as someone who’s been a reporter for 26 years, Nicole’s original post raises red flags. There seem to be holes in her story and she seems to have an amazing verbatim recall of many exact quotes, which would be quite amazing for anyone, let alone someone who was so emotionally overwrought.
I don’t travel with children so my experiences are different. However, I have two artificial hips so I get flagged for extra screening every time I fly, including waiting in the glass box and my experience has been that the procedure is pretty consistent no matter which airport – MCI, Newark, LaGuardia, LAX et al. I’m not saying her story isn’t true or at least partially true, but at first glance, doesn’t completely pass the smell test…
Nic has now posted a response to the TSA. She claims the video is incomplete:
Also, there’s a nice shoutout to Chris. :-)
Also, it should be noted that there are several gaps in the time code on the TSA video. The first is a nearly 6 minute jump from 10:55:27 to 11:01:11. It hits 14 seconds into the video. This is BEFORE she goes through the initial X-ray and metal detector scan. I’ll assume she waits in line for those 6 minutes, since her original story said nothing about anything happening prior to the metal detector.
The next gap is a 20-second jump (11:01:40 to 11:02:00) after she walks through the metal detector and is placed in the holding pen for secondary screening. That’s strange, because you can see the metal detector from the prior camera. So the TSA chose to edit out 20 seconds of video here. That lines up with Nic’s claim that the TSA video doesn’t show her going through the metal detector twice.
Nic is then kept in the holding pen until 11:03:50 — certainly a long two minutes if you’re holding an agitated child and wondering where your baggage has wandered off to. She’s clearly losing her patience with the TSA at this point. She appears to argue with the TSA worker who sends her to the secondary screening area. Up until this point, Nic’s story more or less lines up with the video.
Then there’s another 19-second jump in the time code, from 11:04:12 to 11:04:31. What’s strange is that if you go to the very end of the tape, there’s a wide shot that shows the entire screening area. It doesn’t look like a 20-second walk from the metal detectors to the secondary screening area. If the TSA did anything funny with the video, it would be around this edit.
Still, the story from this point appears to line up with Nic’s original post. An older male agent walks over to inspect Jackson. He tells Nic to put her hands down. The inspection of Jackson appears to take no longer than 6 seconds — about what it ought to take to determine a toddler isn’t hiding a 9 mm in his Huggies.
Nicole’s response would imply that the TSA either edited out several minutes where she was separated from Jackson, or doctored the video so it appears the male agent is returning Jackson to Nic when he actually left with the boy.
Are either of those possible? The first is very easy to do. Anyone with basic video editing skills could take a time code from one section of the tape and put it over another section. The second is much trickier. It would take a professional with with serious CG skills days to fake Nic placing Jackson in the stroller. The TSA didn’t have that kind of time, nor do I suspect they have that kind of expertise.
So that leaves us with two plausible scenarios: 1) The TSA edited out several minutes of the tape and faked the time codes. 2) Nic went delusional when the TSA agent picked up her son and imagined what would have happened had the agent walked away with her baby. She was so stressed and angered by spending two minutes in the holding pen that by the time she got off the plane in Baltimore, she truly thought the TSA had taken her baby.
My money’s on #2.
I don’t know the real problem. Should have a way of mediation between the two sides, so that this problem does not drag on. Poor children of their innocent victims.
Even when I assumed her story was true (because who would be crazy enough to invent that sort of fiction?), it frightened me that someone this emotionally disturbed was responsible for a small child. Now… wow. I think someone mentioned that her husband was in the Navy. If his career doesn’t permit him to live with them 24/7, I think CPS needs to be involved here. I would not trust this woman to properly care for a goldfish, and beyond that, she’s seems unstable to the point of psychosis.
Chris, please quit defending her – I imagine you’d feel differently if your own children were in the care of this lunatic. She has mental problems, she needs help, and meanwhile she should not be entrusted with an innocent child’s welfare.
How can anyone suggest that Nicole White has lied, perhaps for money?
Haven’t feminists taught us over the years that women are incapable of making false accusations of rape, or domestic violence, or child abuse, or abuse?
Nicole is a victim here, and it’s time we get that. And should Nicole fall into that very very very very very very very very rare case of an ill woman who may have exaggerated a little bit we must remember that the real victims are not the TSA agents but the next woman who comes along and has her child snatched. And we have to ask what is it about our culture that condones this sort of abuse of mothers and their children and makes us question the Nicole White’s in the first place.
Anon, what kind of feminists have you been talking to?? Anon raped me. There. I just falsely accused you of rape, and I am a woman.
Now, what I think you’re getting at is that we should never *assume* that a woman is making these things up, but I have yet to see the study that deems women incapable of lying about things. If Nicole were a father writing the very same story, I think people would have the same questions, the same doubts over inconsistencies that have been raised about her story.
Nobody in this post or comments is condoning abusing mothers or children in any way. Take a few deep breaths, and re-read what you’re responding to and what you’ve written. You’ve written some very emotion-driven responses to a situation which objectively presents some inconsistencies. Period.
First off, it seems that the final sticking point Nic has in her follow-up post is that they left her in the plastic box forever. But if you go through the video, she entered the box at 11:02:00 and a TSA officer let her out at 11:03:50. That’s less than two minutes. She starts to get visibly antsy, draw attention to herself from TSOs and other travelers, jump up and down, wave her arm, etc. … after 20 seconds.
She says she’s “thoroughly looking into” the fact that the video shows her son two feet away from her in a stroller while she’s being wanded down and her account has him swept away, out of her sight. I don’t know what there is to look into.
She also says the video doesn’t show the two phone calls she made, nor the TSO whisking her son away. If you look at the time stamps, she walks out of the plastic box camera’s view at 11:04:13, son in hand. Then she sits down in the chair at 11:04:31. She says she made the calls from that chair, so that would mean that in 18 seconds she made two phone calls, PLUS got up from the chair and sat down again. And during that time, a TSO took her son. Oh, and the TSA, a federal agency accountable to the executive branch, Congress, the Supreme Court, and most importantly, the people of the United States, pulled a Nixon on her and cut it out of the tape.
The TSA probably blurred her wanding to cover their asses against privacy invasion claims. But you can still see the outline of her body and the wand and most of what’s happening. Furthermore, Nic doesn’t accuse the officers of doing anything inappropriate, illegal or otherwise during her wanding. And you can still see Jackson; he’s not blurred.
I highly doubt she did this maliciously in an attempt to defame the TSA. But I still don’t know why she did it.
Barbie – Florida is a whole other deal.
Xanax can be abused, surely, but so can any number of fairly low potency medications. Believe me when I say it is fairly low potency.
If you are going to argue on a public blog, perhaps you should check your spelling to give yourself more credibility.
Sara
I think that if you re-read anon’s post, you can clearly see his/her tongue planted firmly in cheek.
Why did they blur portions of the video with Nic, because they were frisking her. It would be an invasion of privacy to show that. Lest face facts here, Nic invented the entire thing and the video shows that.
The “excuse” given by nic about her time before boarding her flight and going through that TSA area seen in the video, she explained that her flight from Jacksonville to Atlanta was delayed for various reasons.
Oops..problem here..you don’t go through TSA a second time.
Why continue to lie.
It all needs to stop.
Additionally, there still is the unanswered question of what nic had concealed under her pants, on her left calf, which can be seen at 11:06:15 to 11:07:17 on the video.
What was that nic?
Why did you conceal it?
Did TSA return whatever item that was?
Why no mention of that in your tale?
Lastly, remember..you have the attention of some people whose careers, years of work, are that of listening to people say and write things to determine the truth. You are not telling the truth.
Time to stop the back pedaling and lame excuse making, blog postings to get yourself attention.
You issued a colorful, inaccurate, false blog post. You probably did so to attract attention to yourself.
That you surely have, but stop now..before this gets way out of hand.
I agree that it is a hoax/delusion/fantasy.
Just to clarify, the item removed from her leg was apparently an ace bandage. SHe mentions this in her “apology” and a bum knee is documented in her blog prior to the incident.
As for passing through TSA a second time, she said that she was in Jacksonville alone and left her son with her mom who lives in Atlanta. To reclaim her son (and presumably his stuff and stroller) she would have had to exit the secure area to meet her mother and then re-enter it.
Still not saying it is a legitimate gripe, because it isn’t, but that will explain two of the inconsistencies.
For those doubting the videos TSA has now uploaded all the camera angles as fully as possible on youtube available via the TSA Blog page.
And a little something to consider about this lady
http://www.mybottlesup.com/therabitch
http://www.mybottlesup.com/tense
If she’s that traumatized by this, it’s something she seriously needs to work out with a therapist. She should quit making up lies and blaming TSA for her irrational, overblown reaction.
I just found out about Nicole White’s story and then TSA’s rebuttal…and somehow ended up on your site. I appreciate your objective response and your straightforward advice. From my limited perspective, it appears that your advice is spot-on.
I just bookmarked your blog and I plan to return later this week to read your past posts + articles. Your wise words – written with such grace and confidence – have given me reason to “pause” here to see what else you have to say about travel.
It must be good to be an affluent white woman in America. You can be a prescription drug abuser (I’m not buying that this woman was ever responsible with her Xanax prescription) and lie through your teeth, and certain people will still cover for you. And you’ll be considered for nationwide media coverage (I can’t believe MSNBC was actually going to pick up this story).
Meanwhile, if you’re a young black woman who was gang-raped and murdered while serving your country, good luck getting immediate notice.
That child should be taken away from ‘nic’.
I wonder how race got invoved in this blog; We dont even know if she is wealthy; I say place her on a no fly list period; Iam glad this is not getting on TV;she is a liar; and and from what I have read about her emotionally unbalanced; but how race got invoved I do not understand,
Dear Nic: I can’t even describe how much disgust that I, as a mom of five, have for someone like you, who would pimp out her kids just to get a few more hits on her substandard blog. Your sensationalist story has more than a few holes in it and from what I can see here and on Consumerist, your rep as a mommy blogger has sunk so low that people are actually cheering for the TSA.
I’ve traveled with my children many a time and I have NEVER had the TSA attempt to “take” my children from me, even when we set the machine off accidentally because of a necklace or bracelet or shoe charm that they forgot to remove. While I realize you were stressed by traveling with your young child, I don’t believe for a minute that you were subjected to such a “traumatic” experience. Shame on you for using your son in this manner.
Something tells me that we’ve all been had. Chris (Elliott), I am still disappointed that you picked up on this story before the entire facts were out. I think you published it prematurely.
Something inside me tells me that this Nic is an individual seeking her 30 minutes (wait, seconds) of fame. The fact that anyone (including myself) is even giving her any attention really makes me sick. I wonder if the whole thing wasn’t a publicity stunt to drive more traffic to her so called blog (a pathetic collection of rantings by a madwoman). Any intelligent, reasonable reader will be so turned off by her offensive language and style. I can’t help but wonder that the reason why MSNBC didn’t pick up this story is because the media were recently had by another self-absorbed, attention seeking individual named Richard Heene. The fact that Nic calls herself a “journalist” is beyond me, and offensive to reputable outlets like Elliott Blog. So congratulations Nic, you have succeeded in getting your 30 seconds of fame, and driving up traffic to your Blog.
Ditto, Ladysiren, I never imagined the day when I would side with the TSA. I hope that there is some consequence to her behavior (ie she is subject to secondary screening from now on). This whole saga is absolutely sickening.
@Chris in NC, I understand your disappointment. I tweeted a link to this White’s post late Friday morning, and was asked by readers to investigate. I did. Unlike some other outlets, however, I asked TSA, Atlanta Airport and the blogger to comment.
Had I waited to hear back from all of the above, I wouldn’t have written a word about this. Even now (ATL didn’t bother to respond).
I think it was far more valuable to have some advice and perspective as the event was unfolding, than waiting for all the facts to be in.
A careful reading of all the posts will reveal a healthy dose of skepticism, but also compassion. I would like to know what drove White to tell this story.
And to elaborate on my conclusion, I’m disappointed that her version of events was so different from what we saw in the video. There’s clearly a problem with her perception of reality. But I’m also relieved that it apparently didn’t happen like she described it. If it had, I’d be writing a much different comment now.
Chris you said, “But I’ve also been in White’s shoes in the past, having published facts that I believed to be true, but weren’t.”
HOWEVER, she lied. Are you saying you lied, or just reported fact that you found out were lies. Like this story??
@Jay, it’s happened to me a time or two, as it has to most journalists I know. We believe something a source tells us, but it turns out to not be accurate. Not so long ago, I had two sources who swore something was true, and they referred me to someone else who backed up their story … but it wasn’t. The resulting story was pretty embarrassing.
A lot of commenters believe White is lying. They could be right. Another possibility is that she is telling her version of events from a perspective that’s distorted by anxiety and/or medication.
Elliot I don’t think taking a sources word (especially double corroberated) is anything like what Nic did. SHE WAS THE SOURCE.
You got lied to, she did the lying. The two are not in the same category at all.
Nic has done damage on two levels:
She has damaged herself and her reputation to the point that people are posting concern for her ability to mother her child (and bringing up CPS)
She has damaged everyone who has and will have a legitimate gripe with TSA through her lies. She has cried wolf, and I think through her “apology”‘ she has cried wolf twice.
I would just like to point out to those who keep referencing her Xanax pill as proof she’s unstable, that’s not necessarily true. Xanax is a benzodiazepine, like Valium or Ativan. A very mild anti-anxiety med. I myself took Ativan for a few months last year to help with a physical condition I developed called “tinnitus” (ear trauma that causes the brain to emit a constant, 24/7 searing ringing sound through the head). I took one pill at night to help me go to sleep and I was allowed to take one more during the day if I could not control my anxiety over the non-stop sound without help, although I rarely took any during the day since it did make me a little sleepy and I work full time. And yes, when I had to fly, I took my doctor prescribed Ativan with me in case the air pressure affected my condition and caused my condition to worsen.
The tinnitus faded and I no longer need to take the Ativan to help me cope. But taking it never affected me adversely mentally or emotionally in any way at all, except to make me feel a little calmer and sleepy. My behavior did not change, I did not act out in strange ways, I did not feel drugged, etc.
So, based upon my own experience and from what I’ve read about benzos, it’s unlikely that her Xanax caused her to behave strangely or out of control *unless* she was abusing it and taking far more than she has been prescribed. Unfortunately some people do that very thing, which is how benzos like Xanax get a bad rap. You see these celebrities in the news taking benzos like candy along with alcohol and other recreational drugs and yes, of course they are going to act bizarre. But that’s not how the drug affects people who take it for the purpose their doctor recommended and at the appropriate dosage.
So please stop sticking an incorrect media-hyped stereotype on benzos like Xanax. When used for their purpose, they can be very helpful indeed.
Now, as for Nic, shame on her for doing this. I have zero sympathy for her getting caught in this lie. I was outraged when I first read her blog before it came out that she lied and then I felt foolish that I’d wasted all that energy being upset on her behalf and imagining what I’d do if my granddaughter had been taken from me or her mother. I hope she learns a huge lesson from exaggerating her story for dramatic effect and/or money or whatever her reasoning was. Although from her followup post called an “apology”, it looks like she hasn’t learned a damn thing. She’s still trying to justify herself. Sad.
Is there something in air or the water? Colorado’s “Balloon Boy” was also a parent-concocted hoax. We all remember the fable about the boy who cried “wolf.” If this “trend” continues, some parent, somewhere will have a genuine missing-child crisis — and the media and public will say, “Oh, just another made-up story.”
Annie, please see my post above where I poinnt to
http://www.mybottlesup.com/therabitch
http://www.mybottlesup.com/tense
These are just two I found in a few minutes, a lot more to the story is on her blog.
Add into that the way it’s brought up in Nic’s story (she says she carries a xanex for anxiety attacks and if familiar enough with them to know she needs many more) look at the overall picture of her, look at her blog, her history…
She has mental issues, whether they are lifelong health issues, ones induced by previous trauma or recent she has issues that need addressing. In one of those links she states how she probably needs a psychatrist but isn’t seeing one because she blew up at the last one for telling her an unpleasant truth.
I respect health problems, menthal and physical, and I respect the hardships people go through to deal with them. But when you don’t take responsibility for your problems, you loose my respect. She is taking medications for multiple issues but still downing wine and beer on a regular basis. This is not the sign of a responsible person tending to her issues.
I have a liver condition that keeps me from drinking. So I don’t drink. As such I expect people to forgive me if I toast their wedding with juice or refuse a beer at the bar. But if I start tossing back fifths of vodka, I expect everyones wrath my I take liver transplant that could have saved someone elses life due to my own irresponsibility.
I don’t think that after looking at Nic’s blog, getting a feeling for her personality and looking at her story carefuly you could really blame anyone for zeroing in on the xanex issue. Carrying an xanex is not a sign of mental instability, but the cirumstantial evidence around this case makes it almost certain it is exactly because of that.
You might do well to take your own advice, do some research before you set out to condemn. Those who condemend Nic I think were pretty much on target with their evaluation, but it appears you did not do your own research, read a few of her blog posts and put the xanex into it’s proper context before condeming others.
annie ; just a note xanax and valium are not in the same class; xanax and atvian are in the same class benzos ; valium is not; the two are not supposed to be mixed.
Chris, I was with you except for your comment that Nic is a gifted writer/blogger. Huh??? Her writing is childish and overly dramatic. She sounds like a hysterical, angry teenager. Please don’t encourage her to keep writing.
Sue, I have to agree… she does have a kind of way with words, but it’s the kind of way that makes me think of a high school kid with jet black hair, a tone of black makeup and piercings who loves to talk about cutting themselves…
BTW just in general, saw this brought up somewher else…
so what’s up with your title? “mybottlesup” came from my husband. brilliant in my mind since our son a) refused my boob and then his bottle, and b) drove me to a more intimate relationship with my wine bottle. “mybottlesup” also stands for how my time is up, i am fed up, and i’ve had it up (to here).
That’s pretty rough… kid drove you to drink and that sentiment about life in general… wow…
Hmm, now we attack those who need Xanax? I would need MUCH more than a Xanax to get on an airplane….Ive taken meds to get over anxiety issues in my life. So what, who cares? I guess if you have any type of “issue” your credibility is at stake….hmmm – I guess my kids should be removed as well. Guess yall need to call the guys with the white coats…..
Come on please! If she was upset, some events might be a little off…Jeesh-Ive been made to wait in a doctors office/emergency room-you name it…guess that 1/2 hour I thought it I was waiting was really 20 minutes…better take my kids because Im not “dealing with reality”
Who cares about her writing style? Im not a professional writer either…but I blog. You gonna go over to my blog and criticize my writing “style” too? Ooohhh dont encourage people to have feelings-dont encourage people to express theirselves.
I guess everyone here that is so quick to judge are worthy of being perfect huh? AND…..who in the world really cared about her blog anyway? How did the TSA get ahold of what she wrote? Why are they so quick to post video that was CLEARLY edited and attack this woman?
Like I mentioned in my prior comment….so, they blur the video for the net, but they didnt blur from ANYONE who could have passed by-male or female. They did not conduct their search in private, it was in full public.
To Devedander and anyone else who has brought up Nic’s posts or her ability to be a Mother. I looked at the blog post from the TSA, and I looked at Nic’s original post and her follow up post. I have also read her blog from time to time, as I was part of the team she put together to walk for the March of Babies walk last year.
I will say that looking at the video even with the time gaps, it looks as if the two stories do not match, I and all of us can only speculate why that is the case. With that said, Nic is not a bad person, I remember the passion and compassion she put into putting the team together for the walk and the money she raised for a fellow mom in the blogosphere that lost her child. If the video is completely legit, which it appears to be, then who knows if it was a serious panic attack that distorted her perception of reality, and if it did, imagine what a person would go through watching that video and realizing that this could have been the case.
What is really upsetting to see, is how quick others are to judge who Nic is based on her blog entries and this one experience, to judge how capable she is to take care of her child, or to judge her on her mental status. If you read more in her writings you will see her son had stomach issues, and I word it this way because I cannot remember how it was labeled in her posts, but I know my son had acid reflux, and just the patience it must have taken her to deal with her son when he couldn’t hold anything down and was in pain. I think this is something that would test someone’s mental state when it comes to their ability to take care of their child.
Devedander I believe you said what her therapist told her was the truth, from reading that post her therapist said she was ‘tragic’, that is not the truth or something that any therapist should say to anyone. Her experiences may have been tragic, but actually for a therapist to label someone, to state they are something because of their past and to not encourage growth and change is completely wrong.
I can’t believe people are saying that CPS should get involved and making assumptions off of her writings, from the place where she obviously goes to vent, any writings by someone that is using this as a therapeutic method can’t be judged on what they express, I am sure it is the extreme of what she is feeling. As you can see in her comment section, her readers seem to understand her.
A last note, if there are those of you that really think she has mental issues beyond functionability and that the CPS should get involved, then why would you say horrible things about a person who you think has mental issues when you know she is going to see what you wrote and it is going to make her even more upset.
I can see the obvious – Someone lies for their own motives, then that is wrong, that is black and white, however we really don’t know if that is all there is to it, given to the fact of her admitting she was having an anxiety attack, etc. The TSA is a huge entity with the proof at this point to back up what they are saying, Nic is one person, and if she is fragile right now who knows what reading all of this can do to someone mentally, it is easy to write these things, but to be on the receiving end of them is something else.
Devedander, I wasn’t referring to your post specifically. :) Hundreds/thousands of people all over the net are pointing at her one emergency Xanax as proof she’s nuts, unstable, etc., they are not taking time to read previous entries of hers like you did but basing their comments on her taking a benzo at all.
I am now part of a support group that helps other sufferers of tinnitus in the early stages and one of the biggest hurdles I have found in trying to help “newbies” is the almost universal resistance in taking something like Ativan or Xanax to help them because of the stigma attached to such drugs. I myself felt the same way before I developed tinnitus. I do not believe in drug use, I won’t even take an Advil if I can get by without one and it took the combined efforts of my doctor, my friends and my husband to get me to take the Ativan in the first place, that’s how afraid I was to take it. Because of the way it’s been portrayed in the media. Scared to death to take it. I cried when I took the first one. I was so afraid I’d be an automatic addict and I didn’t know what the drug would do to me. The movies/TV makes it look like people on such drugs act horribly and irresponsibly. I didn’t want that.
Of course, I got over my fears as I found out it allowed me to get sleep for the first time in weeks. And even made the hearing distortion seem less scary the next day. As I said, eventually as the hearing distortion receded and became less frightening, I was able to wean myself off it and I no longer need to take it. :)
Unfortunately, many people who develop tinnitus and write me, utterly panicked, are equally afraid to take such drugs based upon the media and they also resist their doctor’s/family’s advice. I have to work hard at encouraging them and explain how it helped me again and again and how I did not become an addict or show up on Dr. Drew’s “Celebrity Rehab” *grins*
I just try to step in whenever I see people assume such a thing and point out that if you’re taking one or two pills a day at a low dosage because of a legitimate condition and prescribed by your personal physician, it doesn’t mean you’re suddenly an addict with a capital A. Again, this wasn’t written towards you personally, just a general, friendly message for anyone who might jump to conclusions that are untrue regarding these drugs. :)
Barbie45, Valiam is still a benzo, I wasn’t suggesting they were all exactly the same drug or that they could be combined. :)
From the Wiki: “Diazepam (Valium) was the second benzodiazepine to be invented by Sternbach of Hoffmann-La Roche, and was approved for use in 1960.”
Made a couple of calls and talked with some HL Security contacks I have and… The passenger by TSA guidelines in asked if they want a private screening before the secondary screening begins. They say that means behind closed doors out of the public eye. The video image is blocked out so the bad guys cant download teachable TSA proceedure. I guess thats why TSA goes banana’s when passengers start taking pictures of their buddy getting frisked. Passengers are never asked to unbutton their pants. At most they might be asked to fold over the waste band. And they ask people to remove heavy or bulky outer garments before coming through the walkthrough metal detector. My take from the video: After looking at the Alternative veiws on YooTube-TSA could have done a better time of getting this lady and her baby out of the “plastic box” a little sooner than 1:40 min. To their defense, the only female TSA insight was at the end of the lane waiting to search a bag of a slow moving passenger.
Sheila you are really not doing yourself a favor with your rant post. It’s actually robbing you of credibility as you are making obviously flawed emotion based arguments and going to such exteremes that it looks like you have to because you cannot make a logical argument for your point of view.
I think indeed anyone who carries an “emergency xanex” can have it brought up in a questioning way. Just like someone who carries an “emergency bottle of scotch” or “emergency cupcake” might well have their sobriety or self control called into question.
You are not making sense and are coming across as someone in an emotionally compormised state. In laymens terms you sound like a teenager who’s mom just said “your curfew is now 10 instead of 11″.
Calm down, step back and maybe re read your comment… I think it would do you well to consider it form someone elses perspective.
As for who cared about her blog? Were you asking that when the support was rolling in for her? Were you asking that when the TSA was being wrongly lambasted for a horrible false accustion? Either way the answer is, some people care… and the reality is that it’s not her blog that people needed to care about, people care about the severe misstreatment of others (ie kidnapping) and won’t stand for it. It’s the abuse of this exact sentiment and humanitarian side of people that makes this event such a travesty. There is little enough good in this world that to abuse and thus devalue and possible destroy some of this good will (next time this happens less people will pay head to the wolfs cry even if it’s legit) is heinous to say the least.
How did the TSA get wind of it? The TSA has a blog, they pay attention and I am sure it was forwaded to the TSA in any number of ways for any number of reasons. Her blog is not some secret vault and twitter, facebook and the internet in general are the tools of information desemination that Nic herself depends on to give strength to her “freedom of speech”.
Why are they so quick to release video evidence in their defense? Are you kidding me? Do you know how many people out there regularly lambast the TSA for NOT proving themselves innocent? Daily hundreds of accusations get thrown at the TSA and every one that doesn’t get countered gets a position of truth in the word of rumor. I am surprised the TSA hasn’t released MORE evidence to clear themselves… and honestly when accused of kidnapping is it really a BAD thing invesitage quickly? Had they issued a standard press release and shut up would you really have been happier or would you have been out there with the others condeming them for covering it up and obviously hiding something or they would have shown it by now?
Clearly edited? You have seen the full relase of all 9 camera angles right? Now YOUR distrust is getting in the way of seeing clearly.
Why did they blur her in the video? Two likely reasons: one is yes, to some extent for privacy. She is getting a full body pat down and she has shown a propencity to get carried away with being violated (imagined or not) and there is a difference between seeing something happen walking by and showing it to the whole internet in a capturable video. Anyone can hear you talking to a bank teller at the window, but your bank wouldn’t relase audio transcripts of your personal bank info to the public now would they?
Second, if you have ever tried to take a picture of someone walking into security (as a good by shot) you will find that they don’t allow it. It’s to protect their operations so you can’t send photos or videos around to learn how to bypass their operations. Yes we all know you can just see it an experience it for yourself, but at least you have to be there to do it, this prevents any and everyone from seeing it without having to set foot anywhere near it happening and thus in no way drawing attention to themselves.
Now I have enteretained your borderline ridiculous questions and I suggest again you re evaluate your post as you are truly coming off as an irrational and illogical person, governed by emotion and not willing to accept any truth that doesn’t fit your pre exsiting assumptions of Nic’s virtues.
@Annie I didn’t take it as directed at my post, but in general. And what I said applies in general. Some people may be taking it farther than I do and indeed going too far, but my point was you did made a similar falacy. The way you worded your comment shows you assumed what you were talking about applied to the situation. As I said, a few short minutes learnign about the subject at hand would have shown you that it does not indeed apply. This woman does very much have some questionable mental issues.
You are taking your one situation, which is a legit one, and trying to apply it as somehow related to this one… when a in fact, you, your life and your situation do not parallel Nic at all as shown by her blog.
Questioning her ability to be a parent? Well honestly… I do… there are a lot of levels of questioning someone being a parent, but let me ask you this:
Look at the video. See what she went through. It was annoying, however in my experience it wasn’t even unusually long for a double screening especially involving a baby. So she really experienced just an everyday sort of event…
And totally collapsed as a reult, then followed it up 24 hours later (plenty of time to prove pre mediation of her lie) and accused the TSA (remember while she accused the TSA, really she accused a PERSON) of kidnapping her child amongst other misstreatment.
Ignoring her followup irresponsibilty to accept and own up to her situation, and ignoring her blog information that shows she regularly intakes noteable quantities of alchohol (backed up by the fact that her explanantion of her blogs title says her child drover he to the bottle) while she is taking prescription meds, and has questionable mental status (as shown in my links above)…
Ignorig all that even.. doesn’t the fact that a person being the only parent and caring for a child in busy public places is so easily broken down to a non functional state trigger a worry in you that perhaps the level of parental care isn’t sufficient?
I don’t know about straight up calling for CPS to take her child away, but I wouldn’t see a problem with having CPS evaluate her situation and maybe advise or enforce limitations on how much of the parental load she can take alone…
Xanax abuse/addiction is a serious problem because it is a very short acting drug, and doctors are often prescribing this drug like candy to patients. Without knowing her, it would be very inappropriate to judge her character. I’m assuming that she has a mental illness. However, I personally have a real problem with people (not just this lady, but many other people as well) who carry doses of Xanax (either “emergency” or not) without a regular followup with a physician.
‘A little off’? She didn’t just misjudge a length of time (though she did do that, by too huge margin to be credible). She made up a kidnapping! She wrote a piece of fiction about events that never took place, then presented it as fact.
I’m especially troubled by the supposed phone calls she made to her mother and her husband, because presumably, both read her blog. They would know that those phone calls didn’t really take place, and then it would be clear to them that the rest of the story likely didn’t happen the way it was written, either. Lying about something verifiable like that is just silly, and that makes me think that she honestly believes the story she created in her own mind. If that is the case, she is (as I said before) not competent to care for herself, let alone a child. No one in their right mind would leave a small child in the care of someone incapable of distinguishing reality from fantasy. CPS does (and should) remove children in those situations if the other parent is unable/unwilling to guarantee their physical safety. I didn’t say he should be removed, necessarily, just that the woman needed help, and CPS should be involved in determining what should happen.
I stand by more original statement that someone this affected (for whatever reason) by a normal secondary security screening should not have been traveling alone in the first place, and certainly not with a child. If she lied on purpose, then yes, she’s a ‘horrible person’ and deserves every bit of criticism she’s received, and then some. If she didn’t, then she’s delusional, likely psychotic, and needs help. Those statements are based on her behavior, not the fact that she carries an ‘emergency Xanax’ with her.