[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNO-AzPxS4U]
It’s almost a little too easy to pick on the TSA these days. Not that they’re making it any easier on themselves by patting down a 3-year-old boy with a leg cast.
A YouTube video showing the search has received over 50,000 hits since it was uploaded two days ago and contains scathing commentary from the boy’s father, Matt DuBiel. The boy, who was patted down and swabbed, was not allowed to be physically consoled by any family members in the process. Along with a couple of grandparents, the family was en route to a personal vacation in early 2010 at Chicago’s O’Hare aiport.
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DuBiel said he didn’t think to upload the video until he was going through old family videos recently. He told MSNBC:
“It doesn’t matter when it was… That’s the TSA and that is my son. And he is wearing a body cast. The TSA agent did the best he could with a ridiculous situation, but someone should have stepped in and said, ‘That’s enough.’”
It’s certainly not the first time that the TSA has made the news patting down young children. The agency has stood by its policy, saying that it is an attempt to prevent terrorists from exploiting a gap if they learn of a security loophole within the transport system.
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Erica Ho is a contributor at TIME and the editor of Map Happy. Find her on Twitter at @ericamho and Google+. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.