It doesn’t matter whether you’re a young person or someone who remembers a time before airplanes were commercial, we are all subjects of embarrassing scans, pat downs, and sometimes fondling by TSA agents.

Just ask the 90-year-old woman who was reportedly asked to strip from the waist up at the airport.

Harriette Charney of Virginia was on her way back to the area after visiting her son and his family in Portland. At Portland International Airport, according to her son, she was pulled aside for a second inspection after going through the full body scan. 

Apparently, the TSA’s X-ray body scanner picked up a secret compartment in her clothes. Charney had a secret pocket sewn into her bra to store extra cash in case her wallet was lost. Many of our grandmothers did this as a safety precaution in case their purses were stolen or to keep cash out of the hands of kids and grandkids.

Charney was taken to a back room for a secondary search. This is where the story becomes as a case of he said-she said begins. Her son alleges they told his mother to remove all of her clothes from the waist up. The TSA is denying theyf orced or even asked Charney to disrobe, but that she started to do it on her own.

The Daily Mail reports:

“Preliminary findings indicate that at no time during the screening process did the passenger remover her clothing nor was she requested to,’ TSA spokesman Mike England told Daily Mail in a written statement. ‘In fact, when the passenger, of her own volition, began to disrobe, she was immediately stopped by the TSA officer conducting the screening.’

The federal agency also pointed out that TSA screening procedures ‘do not involved the removal of clothing.’

Mr. Charney said his elderly parent was left shaken by the alleged strip search.

‘There was no sanity or sensitvity at all to the work they were doing.’ he told the station.

We’re left to see what comes of this investigation.

Earlier this year, agents were caught targeting handsome men for additional fondling at Denver International Airport. A college student alleges she was molested in the back by a TSA agent at La Guardia Airport in a sketchy episode. Yet, the TSA failed at its core function of identifying hidden weapons and explosives in 67 out of 70 tests by undercover agents.

Whatever turns out to be the case with Mrs. Charney, the TSA has no excuse for these episodes. They can no longer be considered newbies at their jobs. Whether something is amiss with their training, procedures, or character of their agents, we expect prompt action.  

Of course, the TSA is really an argument for turning over as much as possible to private business. Wouldn't you have more faith in a just outcome for Mrs. Charney and the accused agents if a boss who had a stake in the operation were operating the TSA?