TSA Apologizes To Ruth Sherman And Lenore Zimmerman, Elderly Women Strip Searched At JFK

It seems that TSA agents did violate agency policy when they strip searched two elderly women at JFK airport late last year.

Lenore Zimmerman, 85, accused the TSA in December of taking her into a private room and removing her clothes. Days later, Ruth Sherman, 88 came forward with the charge that over the Thanksgiving holiday, TSA agents made her remove her clothes so they could inspect her colostomy bag.

In Zimmerman's case, officials insisted proper procedures were followed but issued an apology for the inconvenience.

A letter obtained by the Daily News, however, shows the Department of Homeland Security admitting that standard procedures were violated.

"It is not standard operating procedure for colostomy devices to be visually inspected, and [the Transportation Security Administration] apologizes for this employee's action," Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Betsy Markey wrote in the letter.

The agency still insists, however, that Sherman was not made to remove her clothes.

"They asked me to pull my sweatpants down, and now they're not telling you the truth," she told the paper.

An apology was also issued to Zimmerman for the policy violation that was scanning her back brace. Likewise, the accusation that she was strip searched was denied.

Zimmerman also accuses the DHS of lying, and insists her clothes were removed.

Earlier on HuffPost:

Comments

[Candi Cj Dubord Jensen]

04:33 PM on 01/23/2012

I refuse to fly anymore. I'll drive across country to visit my family. The last time I flew my underage daughter got interrogated and I was told that if i wanted to fly home, with her, I'll allow them to question her. I was appalled. No request for permission or anything. Then the threats to separate my daughter and I. It was mind blowing.

[DuffyShort]

12:28 PM on 01/19/2012

They never find anything. We know becuase as terrorists tip their hands, we find that they fly constantly. TSA is a gross offender of human rights......Thanks...to Bushie....Who never flys commercial.....

[xhawk2]

09:16 AM on 01/19/2012

The TSA strip searches elderly women because CAIR gets upset if it's Muslims being profiled.

[Endogenous Light Nexus]

06:53 AM on 01/19/2012

This invasion of privacy is so over the top that we'd be much better off taking our chances with the occasional terrorist instead of becoming such a nation of fearful rabbits that we allow this kind of behavior to continue. I AM NOT AFRAID OF TERRORISTS!

[Angelicaglen]

01:48 PM on 01/19/2012

Me neither... I agree with you. Our government is slowly taking away our rights to defend ourselves,forcing us to put up with bull....,and live with people who have always HATED Americans.... If we're not careful,we will be forced into putting our hands on the Koran,instead of the Bible.

[PolPrairieMama]

05:35 PM on 04/16/2012

Speak for yourself. I'm not willing to have my children and myself die at the hands of terrorists because we flew to Poland to see my family.

[simzillyjp]

03:36 AM on 01/19/2012

Squat & coughs are coming to an airport near you. Why someone would buy a plane ticket for being treated like a prisoner....is beyond me.

[fattrucker]

11:22 PM on 01/18/2012

either TSA went overboard or Al Quaida is scraping the bottom of the suicide bomber barrell

[wjmlegal7]

10:19 PM on 01/18/2012

A search of my person at LAX a couple of months ago by an Airport Police Man was based more on a directive to feel me up. Not much to look at myself you'd have to figure the responsible person is a real wierdo. This took place just after release of the Ghost Protocol.

[pitciarn]

09:27 PM on 01/18/2012

Issues like this will continue until we get it right. We need to learn Profiling and Body Language to assess the threat at the airport gate. The wholesale searching and groping of EVERYONE just stops nothing. TARGET the right person, use POLICE & Military intelligence to build a data base of potential attackers.

How can a nation as good as ours resort to to such BS "Security" to catch a would be Hijacker?? We need to interlink CIA overseas Intell with FBI / Police domestic Intell to FIND the targets before they arrive at the airport. Flying used to be part of the adventure of travel, now its like being packed into a cattle-car..

[mckinaway01]

09:23 PM on 01/18/2012

Safety people. It's not about being elderly or not. You want terrorism? Keep making excuses for searching and your lending an ear to others for ideas!

[Kirk Allen]

10:25 PM on 01/18/2012

quick , back to your governent bubble, they will keep you safe, you coward.

[mckinaway01]

10:47 PM on 01/18/2012

Huh? Coward? I say not! You need to move to a 3rd world country Kirk and realize how good you have it here! As for government, I consider our military as the blessing for our beginnings. Hmmm.

[Angelicaglen]

01:58 PM on 01/19/2012

I like that. I couldn't have found a better description !

[patches04]

11:33 PM on 01/18/2012

mckinaway01, you give up freedome very easily don't you? Thousands of our people have died to protect our freedom and now we just obey like sheep.

[attyinv]

08:29 PM on 01/18/2012

Wow! . . .an apology! This day and age PC dictates that you can do whatever you want and all you have to do is apologize later and that makes it alright. Sorry, not good enough. Heads should roll starting with whoever heads TSA! Remember when this jerkwad agency was forced into being and certain members of Congress ran around talking about how these new security people needed to be "government employees" in order to be or professional caliber??

[Kazzim Zongo]

08:07 PM on 01/18/2012

"Plane Left Gate With Gun on Board, DFW Airport Says" but, hey TSA, you caught the old lady's colostomy bag. I feel safer.

[tiredoftheBS]

07:21 PM on 01/18/2012

Sounds like the TSA agent needed to satisfy his/her curiosity. Now that he/she knows what a naked 85 yr. old with a colostomy looks like, I guess he/ she can go home and satisfy his/her sexual autoerotic needs. The TSA must be held liable financially for that kind of rape.

[fisher1949]

06:26 PM on 01/18/2012

TSA, where Truth Seldom Applies, is now retracting their statement at the time that the proper procedures were followed is admitting wrongdoing after Senators Gianaris and Schumer threatened to staff the airports with State Police to monitor their screeners.

The agency now admits that one woman was strip searched after lying for months and claiming that it didn’t happen but we’re supposed to believe this agency in the other two cases? Three women all reported being strip searched at JFK on the same weekend yet TSA contends that it never happened.

It is obvious that TSA strip searched all three women in a blatant violation of their rights and Federal and State laws requiring a court order yet no one is being punished for this. This is another example of TSA’s utter contempt for airline passengers and penchant for lying.

This agency has repeatedly lied about a myriad of issues and promised Congress that they would conduct independent testing of the scanners four times in 2011, as recently as October, only to renege on those promises each time.

This agency is a colossal failure and the lack of accountability and responsible management permits these abuses to persist. TSA is far too broken to be reformed and must be replaced with something that actually works.

TSA Crimes & Abuses
bit.ly/TravelUndergroundTSAabuses

[Angelicaglen]

06:47 PM on 01/18/2012

I agree. It is a failure.. But change will never happen as long as people pay their money to fly. I haven't flown in years because I'm afraid I might end up in jail for disorderly conduct...I don't want those people feeling me up. There have been too many stories of people who have been violated in the name of 'HOMELAND SECURITY'.,

[Raven145]

01:04 AM on 01/19/2012

I think in the origiinal report a TSA rep said a video of the strip search showed they followed the proper procedures. A video of the strip search???????

[dayzee10]

05:09 PM on 01/18/2012

I wonder how they determined the colostomy bag was safe? Taste? Smell? Texture?

[KidShalleen]

08:00 PM on 01/18/2012

HOW!!! When they realized that they fckd up royal, that's when!!!!

[pphhrogg]

05:05 PM on 01/18/2012

Every single violation shoud be taken to CIVIL court....and let the judges decide if those TSA agents were wrong or not. It's evident that they are teaching the agents to lie.