By Meena Hartenstein
Daily News Staff Writer
The Transportation Security Administration doesn't think its agents did anything wrong in asking an elderly woman with cancer to remove her adult diaper during an aiport security screening.
The agency came under fire after Florida woman Jean Weber claimed her 95-year-old mother was forced to take off her diaper for a pat down at the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport last weekend.
"It's something I couldn't imagine happening on American soil," Weber told the Northwest Florida Daily News.
"While every person and item must be screened before entering the secure boarding area, TSA works with passengers to resolve security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner," the agency said in a statement Sunday. "We have reviewed the circumstances involving this screening and determined that our officers acted professionally and according to proper procedure."
The problem began when Weber and her mother were going through security and a TSA officer told them he "felt something suspicious" on the elderly woman's leg that needed to be checked in a private room.
During the private patdown, Weber says, the agent came out of the room to tell Weber that her mother's adult diaper had been soiled and couldn't be checked properly, and they needed her to change it to finish the search.
Weber says watching her mother, who is battling leukemia, be subjected to the security screening drove her to tears.
"My mother is very ill," Weber told CNN."She had a blood transfusion the week before, just to bolster up her strength for this travel."
Weber, who says her mother is now doing "fine," is dedicated to making sure no one suffers the same treatment.
"Nobody should feel the way I felt that day," she told the Detroit News. "I'm not angry. The rules need to be changed."
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