Disabled Teen Allegedly Assaulted by US Airport Security

A mum was outraged after her teenage daughter, who is physically disabled and has brain tumour, was left bloodied and bruised by airport security.

Mum Shirley Cohen has filed a lawsuit against the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority and the US Transport Security Administration (TSA) after her then 18-year-old daughter, Hannah Cohen was assaulted when she was returning to Chattanooga on June 30, 2015, after receiving a final round of radiation at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee in the US.

She was travelling with her mum from Memphis International Airport for 17 years and they knew the security routine well. However, this time, Hannah, now 19, set off the metal detector at the security checkpoint. At that point, TSA agents told Hannah they needed to take her to a “sterile area” to search her, which caused Hannah to become disoriented and afraid. “They wanted to do further scanning. She was reluctant “” she didn’t understand what they were about to do,” Shirley said.

She also said that she tried to explain to the agents that her daughter was partially deaf, blind in one eye, paralysed and easily confused as a result of 17 years of brain cancer surgeries and treatments, yet she said that agents pushed her aside.

Then what happened next shocked Shirley. She told WREG-TV:

“She’s trying to get away from them but in the next instant, one of them had her down on the ground and hit her head on the floor. There was blood everywhere.”

Shirley said she immediately grabbed her phone from the security conveyer belt and took a photo of her daughter on the ground.

Hannah was then arrested, taken to hospital and was jailed at Shelby County jail for 24 hours. When she was released, she cried in her mother’s arms, saying “I’m sorry, Mama.”

Two days later, Hannah appeared before a local judge. She was made to explain to the judge what happened to her, but when Hannah looked up, revealing her cuts and bruises, Shirley told The Guardian “the judge’s eyes got big and round.”

The charges were dropped and the court refunded the $US250 in costs the family had paid.

The family then filed a federal lawsuit against the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority and the TSA for damages that include pain, medical expenses, personal and emotional injury, and embarrassment.

The lawsuit alleges that the TSA and airport police discriminated against Hannah because of her disability. They also failed to provide reasonable accommodation for screening her. The lawsuit then asks for a “reasonable sum not exceeding $100,000 and costs.”

TSA spokesman Mark Howell and Jerry Brandon, chief of public safety of the Memphis International Airport Police Department, said they could not comment on pending litigation.

Source: News.com.au and Au.news.yahoo.com