"You're only 15—cover yourself," the man said to the 15-year-old girl. I suppose a father might say that to his daughter, but here the father is rightfully pissed off because the man who said it was a TSA agent at LAX.
Theoretically Secure Airports
would also work here
According to the girl, she noticed the agent was "glaring" at her and mumbling something. "She said, 'Excuse me?'" her father wrote, "and he said, 'You're only 15, COVER YOURSELF!' in a hostile tone. She said she was shaken up by his abusive manner." Probably we are only hearing about this because the father is Mark Frauenfelder, co-founder of boing boing, one of the world's most popular blogs—what are the odds that this is the only girl that agent has treated this way?
As Frauenfelder wrote, it doesn't matter how she was dressed, but he posted a picture anyway showing that his daughter was wearing a t-shirt and leggings—hardly rare these days—with a long flannel shirt over the whole thing. So there was no reason for the comment, in addition to there being no reason for him to comment and no justification for commenting. Is that redundant? Maybe. Mind your own goddamn business, is what we're all trying to say, not that there is any point to your business in the first place.
After demanding that the girl cover up, I assume they then moved her down the security line to a scanner where they could see her naked.
Frauenfelder said that he believes TSA management is taking the matter seriously, which is good, and that the supervisor he and his wife met with was apologetic and professional. Obviously not all TSA people are creeps, just as not all lawyers are—well, whatever some of us are. But here's another incident that shows why we better be careful who we give power to, because some of those people are going to use it in ways they have no business doing.
"We regret that this passenger had an unpleasant experience," said a TSA spokesman, because that's the kind of thing spokesmen say, as if the experience just sort of happened.