Refused To Allow TSOs To Administer A Pat-Down Search Of Her Daughter

A woman from Clarksville, TN was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct Saturday after she refused to allow her daughter to be patted down at a security checkpoint at Nashville International Airport (KBNA).

The 41-year-old woman and her daughter, whose age was unspecified, were traveling from Nashville to Baltimore on Southwest on Saturday. When they were selected for additional screening, the mother, identified as Andrea Fornella Abbot, allegedly yelled and swore at TSA agents. The Tennessean reports that in the police report, authorities wrote that Abbot said she did not want her daughter "touched inappropriately" or "crotch-grabbed."

She also refused the full body scan. Airport security officer Sabrina Birge told the paper that Abbot "told me in a very stern voice that they were not going through that X-ray." Birge says she informed them that the scanner was safer than the radiation emitted from a cell phone and used technology similar to a sonogram, but Abbot still refused. The police report says she said the didn't want anyone "seeing our bodies naked."

Abbot also tried, unsuccessfully, to take a video with her cell phone, according to reports.

After a recent video showing the pat-down of a six-year-old girl at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International airport, TSA says it has changed its policy regarding children. They say they have instructed TSOs to avoid invasive pat-down searches of kids, and say the new guidelines should "reduce" the number of pat-downs conducted on children.

Abbot was released from a Nashville jail after posting $1,000 bond on the disorderly conduct charge.

FMI: http://www.police.nashville.gov, www.tsa.gov