TSA admits error screening elderly women

Transportation Security Administration officials have acknowledged that screeners at Kennedy Airport violated policy last fall when they asked two elderly women to show medical devices worn beneath their clothing.

"It is not standard operating procedure for colostomy devices to be visually inspected, and TSA also apologizes for this employee's action," Betsay Markey, an assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a letter to state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria). She also wrote it was not standard to screen a back brace.

Initially, TSA officials insisted that all "screening procedures were followed" after Lenore Zimmerman, 85, of Long Beach, and Ruth Sherman, 89, of Fort Lauderdale -- who traveled separately through the airport in November -- spoke publicly and said they were strip-searched.

Zimmerman, in a wheelchair, had to lift up her shirt and lower her pants so a female TSA agent in a private room could remove her back brace, which was X-rayed. Sherman said she was "humiliated" when two female screeners had her lower her sweatpants to examine her colostomy bag.

TSA spokesman Greg Soule said Wednesday there are rules in place to deal with passengers who have medical conditions.

"For security reasons, we don't give the specifics of our operating procedures," Soule said.

Markey, in the letter to Gianaris, said all screeners at the airport would be retrained on how to deal with passengers with disabilities and medical conditions.

Markey said screeners did not ask Zimmerman or Sherman to remove clothing.

"They're lying," said Sherman, whose birthday was yesterday. "Why would I, on my own, pull down my pants?"

Zimmerman, who has traveled to Florida every winter for a decade, said screeners have always patted her down because she wears a pacemaker. This was the first time she was strip-searched, she said. "I would like an apology."