What if she hadn’t taped the episode? Her (the family’s) word vs the TSA staff? There was nothing anyone could have done to help the little girl, short of leaving the airport. They would have forfeited their entire vacation and TSA was doing a good job of ruining it already. The entire family was there and TSA was in complete control of them, as they are of all passenger. The TSA agent even told the mother she couldn’t tape what was going on.
I don’t find any easy answer to this. I may well have gotten myself arrested had I been in that situation.
Still, had the parents prepared themselves and their 3 children for this experience? Surely they are not so naive! This is not the first time this has happened (eg, 11 months ago, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl8mjVFnk00 ) The screening info is (acc article) on the TSA website, ‘passengers who can neither stand nor walk will be screened by a thorough patdown while they remain seated.’
//Mrs Forcks responds: ‘You can’t touch my daughter unless I can record it,’ and later adds [half talking to herself, realizing how wrong this is]: ‘The problem is, I don’t allow anyone to touch my little daughter.’//