They can't deprive you of your mobility aid... except when they can

[staranise]

By the time I shuffled into the domestic terminal at Toronto's Pearson airport, I was pretty bushed and my knee was transitioning from "aching pain" to "stabbing pain", so when I tossed all my stuff on the security screening counter, the security person said, "Can you walk without your cane?" and I said, "Can I keep it, please?"

They assented, so I went through the metal detector with the cane. Of course, it went off. The woman with the handheld metal detector therefore pulled me aside for a personal screening and pat-down. "Arms out to the side, please," she said. I put my cane as far out to the side as I could, and held my free arm horizontal. She started to scan me, then gestured to my cane arm. "Arms out to the side."

I waggle the cane. "But I--"

"Arms out to the side, miss. This is a security procedure."

So I have to stand there with my arms straight out, both feet flat on the floor, without a lick of help from my cane, as she pats me down looking for nerfarious items.

For five minutes. Like, apparently the last two patdowns of my shins and biceps weren't good enough. Maybe THIS time she'll find something!

Quite honestly, it'd have hurt less if I'd just limped through the metal detector.

Comments

[jadelennox]

That's not even true (what she said, I mean)! I mean, I can't speak for Canada, but I'm pretty damn sure they can let you sit in the chair. If you go through in a wheelchair, anyway, they will pat you down in the chair.

[staranise]

Yes, but that would require her to do something not in her training manual--and I'm pretty sure treating PWD respectfully isn't something they get trained to do.

At least, I hope not. If it were, I'd have to cry, because then they wouldn't even have an excuse.

[softestbullet]

That's so awful, holy shit. :(

[ex_rising236]

That absolutely sucks. In the future, be more assertive when they ask if you can walk without your cane, and make it clear that you can neither walk nor stand without it -- even if that's stretching the truth a bit, if you say that I can't think of a way that they can justify taking your cane from you or making you stand without it. If they do have to take your cane from you to do a trace test or to pat you down, they have to also let you sit down for those things.

[urocyon]

That was really crappy behavior. :(

After my dad got his cane seized from him going through Dulles (in 2004--we had to track down a new one for him the day before my wedding!), I've just been putting mine on the conveyor belt and hobbling through security. And, especially by the time I've been lurching around the airport for a while, I do need to use it. In future, I think I'll insist that I do, indeed, need it if they try to give me problems; as it is, I feel like I'm aiding and abetting this kind of shoddy treatment. :/

[staranise]

I feel like I'm aiding and abetting this kind of shoddy treatment. :/

Yes, me too.

Still, I still kind of snerk at the people who let me keep my shoes on when going through American security--there's an inch of lift in the sole of one of my shoes. I appreciate the kindness of the gesture, but if any shoe ever needed to be examined for security purposes, isn't it the one that's been specially modified to change its shape? I could hide a whole lot in my lift, and just peel back the sole tread to get at it!

[cesy]

*rage*

[being_broken]

I use a wheel-chair in airports because I'd never manage all that walking with the flights and everything else (usually flying internationally so add huge customs-ness to the adventure) but I can walk some and that's usually easier for metal screening. Just this last flight I learned something terribly helpful - an additional person's hand doesn't set off the metal detectors. A truly kind screener asked if I could walk through the screening thing easier if I could hold onto his hand (held out to me through the detector from the side I was walking towards). Note first the *asking*!! and then yes, absolutely, I hold onto everything near me to walk on a bad day (and traveling is inherently a bad day) so I assume he'd noticed that. My point here is that I could walk through the detector while leaning on something that didn't set off the alarms, not gonna work for everyone by any means and I don't know how many screeners will let me but I plan to ask the next time I'm flying.

Also grrr making you give up your cane and stand is so wrong and unfair

[roserodent]

I am still waiting for someone to actually *notice* when they say "can you put your hands out like this?" (directly out in the crucifix position) and I say "no, sorry, I can't". All that happens is they totally fail to listen and repeat the question. Usually takes 3 rounds before it starts to dawn on them that with the electric wheelchair and all maybe I really can't put my arms up in the air and hold them there while they prod bits of me. Heck, I could maybe hold one arm up, but if they poke me in the wrong nerve they will get an automated slap in the head when my arm takes off of its own accord. And then I will end up in a police cell trying to explain that if my own mother touched me there I'd have slapped her too, it's a reflex, darnit!