'I didn't know what they were doing to me': Boy, 8, on trip to Disneyland given full body search by TSA agents Portland Oregon

'I didn't know what they were doing to me': Boy, 8, on trip to Disneyland given full body search by TSA agents Portland Oregon

 

Pictures have emerged of an 8-year-old boy on a family trip to Disneyland being full body searched by TSA agents at airport security.

Spencer Sheahan was pulled aside and searched by a burly TSA agent at Portland International airport as the family made their way to Disneyland last week.

Appalled at the treatment, Heather took out her camera and photographed the invasive search of her little boy.

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Searched: 8-year-old Spencer Sheahan is seen here being searched by a TSA agent at Portland Int airport

 

Concerned: Heather Sheahan said she thought searching children was not acceptable

Speaking to NWCN News, Heather Sheahan said her family were moving through airport security when her son set off an unusual sounding alarm.

She said: 'It didn't buzz like a normal buzz. It beeped like a beep you normally don't hear.

'They went up his leg, into that area, down the next leg, up here (chest), felt all over.

'I'm all for any adult doing it. But for a child ... I don't think it's right.'

Spencer added: 'I was confused. I did not know what they were going to do to me.'

The incident comes just days after a video showing a 6-year-old girl being searched in New Orleans airport caused outrage after it was posted on-line.

Selena and Todd Drexel, from Kentucky, said they want the TSA to change how it screens children after their daughter Anna was subject to an invasive body search.

Finally: The family went on to have their Disneyland holiday

The disturbing footage shot by the Drexel family showed little Anna being called forward for a full pat down and finger search by a burly TSA security agent.

Just before the search begins Mrs Drexel asks 'can't you just re-scan her', before being told 'no' by the TSA guard as the small child is called forward for the search.

Scared: Spencer said: 'I was confused. I did not know what they were going to do to me'

The gloved guard feels the child all over, poking her fingers down the child's trousers before running her hands around the waist band.

As the female guard touches the child's bottom she says: ' I am touching your sensitive area with the back of my hand.

She also runs her hands over the child's legs, arms, chest and groin areas.

The couple, who also have a nine-year-old daughter, Grace and a two-year-old daughter Caroline, said everyone bar Caroline had to go through the airport scanner, but it was little Anna who was selected for a pat down.

The search is just one of several invasive incidents that have enraged air travellers in recent years.

Last year it emerged the TSA were being sued for an incident at the Corpus Christi airport when a woman's breasts were exposed.

An unnamed 23-year-old college student was allegedly singled out for 'extended search procedures' before flying in 2008.

'As the TSA agent was frisking plaintiff, the agent pulled the plaintiff's blouse completely down, exposing plaintiffs' breasts to everyone in the area,' the Amarillo Globe-News quotes the lawsuit as saying.

 

Last November the video of a 3-year-old girl being frisked at a Tennessee airport caused national outrage.

Mandy Simon was seen sobbing and pleading with staff at Chattanooga, Tennessee airport.

Anger: Selena and Todd Drexel, pictured with their daughters from left: Grace, Anna and Caroline, have spoken out about the ordeal

 

Gripped: The TSA agent probes down little Anna Drexel's trousers, running her fingers around the waistband

 

She had become upset after having to have her teddy bear put through an X-ray machine and can be heard screaming: 'Stop touching me!'

And earlier this year at least two passengers, including a 54-year-old Missouri City man, complained about airport staff putting their hands down the front and rear of their pants.

Thomas Mollman, 54, said he experienced the controversial 'pat down' when he was travelling through security at Fort Lauderdale Airport.

Mr Mollman, who was wearing shorts at the time of the search, said he was subjected to a 'groping' by a TSA officer, and he believe his experience was tantamount to sexual molestation.

He said: '[The officer] put his hand in between my underwear and my skin and did a 360 all the way around, touching certain sensitive points in the back and the front.'