By Daily Mail Reporter 13th July 2011
A mother has been arrested after refusing to let her child be searched by a TSA agent.
Charged: Andrea Fornella Abbott was arrested after refusing to let her child have a TSA pat-down
Andrea Fornella Abbott, 41, was arrested at Nashville International Airport on Saturday after telling agents she did not want her daughter to be 'touched inappropriately' or have her 'crotch grabbed,' according to a police report.
Mrs Abbott acted 'belligerent and verbally abusive to staff', yelling and swearing at them, according to the report.
Police said after the woman refused to calm down she was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.
Speaking to police, airport officer Sabrina Birge said:'[Abbott] told me in a very stern voice with quite a bit of attitude that they were not going through that X-ray.'
The officer then told Mrs Abbott: 'No, it’s not an X-ray,' before adding, 'It is 10,000 times safer than your cell phone and uses the same type of radio waves as a sonogram.'
Mrs Abbott then reportedly replied: 'I still don’t want someone to see our bodies naked.'
Change: Airport security workers will now make repeated attempts to screen young children without resorting to invasive pat-downs
Mrs Abbott was also prevented from taking a video of the incident on her mobile phone.
The news comes as the TSA finally changed its policy on patting down young children at airports this month.
Airport security workers will now make repeated attempts to screen young children without resorting to invasive pat-downs.
The agency is working to put that change in place around the country, and it should reduce, but not eliminate, pat-downs for children.
The move comes after public outrage in April over a video of six-year-old Anna Drexel, who was patted down at New Orleans airport.
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