LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A
Texas woman who claims she was forced to remove a nipple ring with
pliers in order to board an airplane called Thursday for an apology by
federal security agents and a civil rights investigation.
"I
wouldn't wish this experience upon anyone," Mandi Hamlin, 37, said at a
news conference. "My experience with TSA was a nightmare I had to
endure. No one deserves to be treated this way."
Hamlin said
she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on Feb. 24 when
she was scanned by a Transportation Security Administration agent after
passing through a larger metal detector without problems.
The
female TSA agent used a handheld detector that beeped when it passed in
front of Hamlin's chest, the Dallas-area resident said.
Hamlin
said she told the woman that she was wearing nipple piercings. The
female agent then called over her male colleagues, one of whom said she
would have to remove the body piercings, Hamlin claimed.
Hamlin
said she could not remove them and asked if she could instead display
her pierced breasts in private to the female agent. But several other
male officers told her she could not board her flight until the jewelry
was removed, she said.
She was taken behind a curtain and managed to remove one bar-shaped nipple piercing but had trouble with the second, a ring.
"Still
crying, she informed the TSA officer that she could not remove it
without the help of pliers, and the officer gave a pair to her," said
Hamlin's attorney, Gloria Allred, reading from a letter she sent
Thursday to the director of the TSA's Office of Civil Rights and
Liberties. Allred is a well-known Los Angeles lawyer who often
represents high-profile claims.
Hamlin showed reporters at the
news conference how she took off the second ring by applying pliers to
the torso of a mannequin that had a peach-colored bra with the rings on
it.
She said she heard male TSA agents snickering as she took
out the ring. She was scanned again and was allowed to board even
though she still was wearing a belly button ring.
"After
nipple rings are inserted, the skin can often heal around the piercing,
and the rings can be extremely difficult and painful to remove," Allred
said in the letter.
TSA officials said they are investigating Hamlin's allegations to see if its policies were followed.
"Our
security officers are well-trained to screen individuals with body
piercings in sensitive areas with dignity and respect while ensuring a
high level of security," the agency said in a statement.
On
its Web site, the TSA warns that passengers "may be additionally
screened because of hidden items such as body piercings, which alarmed
the metal detector."
"If you are selected for additional
screening, you may ask to remove your body piercing in private as an
alternative to a pat-down search," the site says.
Hamlin would have accepted a "pat-down" had it been offered, Allred said.
If
an alarm does sound, "until that is resolved, we're not going to let
them go through the checkpoint, no matter what they're wearing or where
they're wearing it," said TSA spokesman Dwayne Baird in Salt Lake City.
People routinely pass through security wearing wedding rings
without problems and it might take a larger bit of metal to trigger an
alarm, Baird said.
Hamlin filed a complaint but the TSA's
customer service manager at the Lubbock airport concluded the screening
was handled properly, Allred said.
Hamlin wants an apology from the TSA and an investigation by the agency's civil rights office.
Allred said she might consider legal action if the TSA does not apologize.
Hamlin
was publicly humiliated and has "undergone an enormous amount of
physical pain to have the nipple rings reinserted" because of scar
tissue," Allred said.
Hamlin said her piercings have never set off an airport metal detector. She added that she will never fly out of Lubbock again.
"The
conduct of TSA was cruel and unnecessary," Allred wrote. "The last time
that I checked a nipple was not a dangerous weapon."
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
