Phoenix, AZ – A Southern California woman who was held at a Phoenix airport four years ago after refusing to have her breast milk X-rayed said Wednesday she has reached a tentative settlement with the Transportation Security Administration.
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Stacey Armato, who filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, said TSA officials have tentatively offered her $75,000, along with promises to retrain agents and clarify its guidelines on screening breast milk.
The reassurances about revised training and rules were more important than the monetary compensation, she said.
“We had been waiting for them to really kind of confirm that they would be retraining everybody and making these policy updates,” Armato said. “When we finally got confirmation of that, that was really reassuring.”
TSA spokesman Ross Feinstein declined to comment on a “pending matter.” He confirmed that current TSA regulations classify breast milk as liquid medication. As a result, parents are permitted to bring an amount larger than the 3 ounces normally allotted for liquids.
According to the agency’s website, officers now use a bottled liquid scanner system in most airports to screen medically necessary liquids for explosives or other threats. The system uses lasers, infrared or electromagnetic resonance, rather than X-rays.
That was not an option at the time for Armato, who said she was accustomed to having a visual inspection for breast milk when traveling.
Armato, of Hermosa Beach, said she asked for an alternate screening of her breast milk at a security checkpoint at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Feb. 1, 2010. She cited concerns about exposing the milk to radiation.
According to a 2013 complaint from Armato, agents denied her request and then detained her in a glass enclosure for 40 minutes. Armato, who was traveling alone, alleged their action was partly retaliation for a complaint she filed over a similar incident a week earlier.
She also said officers would not let her retrieve a printout she had of the TSA rules regarding breast milk.
“It was so surreal. To have so many people of authority there acting in concert, kind of watching me stand there and cry,” Armato said. “It was just completely mind-boggling. You just feel completely helpless.”
In her complaint, Armato said the Phoenix police were called and an officer told her to do whatever was asked to avoid arrest. After an alleged “intrusive physical body inspection” and a secondary screening of the milk, Armato said she was released but missed her flight.
Rob Mosier, Armato’s attorney, said they plan to make sure the agency follows through with updates to its website.
“As far as internal procedures, I have to take them at their word that they will do that,” Mosier said.
Armato said any money she receives will go toward attorney fees and a Los Angeles nonprofit that promotes breastfeeding. The mother of two said the past four years have been “absolutely worth it” if it means other breastfeeding moms won’t be intimidated to travel with breast milk.
“My kids are 4 1/2 and 3,” Armato said. “Hopefully one day we’ll have another one, and I’ll be breastfeeding, and these changes will benefit my future travels and also for other breastfeeding moms.”
Unfortunately, the implementation of TSA standards, not only vary from airport to airport, but actually vary within a given airport. In 2009, I was leaving La Guardia, on an Air Tran flight. For some reason, the brainless TSA personnel did not want passenger’s shoes to be placed in the bins, (furnished by TSA), where other personal items were placed. They insisted on removing anyone’s shoes from those bins (which are not very sanitary), and placing the shoes alone on the belt, which goes through the x-ray scanner. In fact, every other airport that I previously went through, including LaGuardia, permitted shoes to be placed in those delightful bins. Only a few days earlier, while traveling from Akron to LaGuardia, on the same airline (which I don’t recommend), I was retrieving my shoes and other belongings from those bins, and was in the process of returning the bins, after tying my shoes. All of a sudden, a nasty female TSA agent shouted “ARE YOU GOING TO RETURN THOSE”. Did she really think that I wanted to keep those filthy bins, as a souvenir? The TSA recruits the lowest of the lowest, including those with police records! They are absolutely brainless!!
Just goes to show. If you’re a jackass mom who thinks that xrays are going to poison your milk, confronted by a jackass TSA agent, the people of the USA will gladly pay you $75,000. Jackpot!
In the article it says she was traveling alone, if that means she wasn’t with her baby then she has some real confidence that the terrorists won’t strike again. She is without her baby and she expects to be aloud more then 3oz of liquid without screening? And if she was with her baby, then I’m sure if she would feed some of it to her baby they wud let her go. Something doesn’t sound right here.
So some California kid was able to get onto the runway and onto a plane without being seen. Inside, the terminal building, the TSA was sniffing people’s shoes. Perhaps their priorities are misplaced.
A 3 yr old on breast milk???