TSA Admits Wrongdoing in Strip Search of Two Elderly Women

(Newsroom America) -- In a reversal, the Transportation Security Administration is admitting wrongdoing in the case of two elderly women who were strip-searched at Kennedy Airport in New York City by TSA agents.

Initially, federal officials had said all "screening procedures were followed" when agents following public complaints by Ruth Sherman, 89, and Lenore Zimmerman, 85, who said they were humiliated by the searches, the New York Daily News reported Wednesday.

But a statement obtained by the paper from the TSA said agents violated standard practice in the treatment of the women last November.

Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Betsy Markey admitted to state Sen. Michael Gianaris, a Queens Democrat, that agents violated TSA policy when they forced Sherman to show them her colostomy bag.

"It is not standard operating procedure for colostomy devices to be visually inspected, and [the Transportation Security Administration\] apologizes for this employee’s action," Markey wrote, according to the Daily News.

The letter says she was led to a private room in her wheelchair after she voluntarily lowered her pants to show screeners the bag. In the room agents then patted her down and told her to show them the bag, the paper reported.

Still, Markey maintained Sherman was never asked to remove any clothing.

"They asked me to pull my sweatpants down, and now they’re not telling you the truth," Sherman, who live in Florida, told the paper Monday.

Markey also denied that Zimmerman was strip-searched, but she told the paper two female TSA agents removed her clothing instead of just patting her down after she showed them she was wearing a defibrillator.

"They're lying. I don’t have a problem with [screeners checking\] the back brace. I have a problem with being strip-searched," Zimmerman told the Daily News.

Gianaris said he wasn't completely satisfied with the TSA's response, noting it was good to see the agency admit wrong, "but they’re still falling short of admitting that these women’s dignity was violated by asking them to remove their clothes."

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