Extensive TSA pat down of hearing-impaired man makes TikTok squirm. ‘This is not okay’
A man with cochlear implants shared an up-close and personal pat down at San Francisco International Airport, leaving millions on TikTok disturbed.
“I’ve worked at an airport for over a decade … and that was the most aggressive/excessive pat down I’ve ever seen,” one viewer commented.
Dan Jarvis posted his encounter on TikTok in a video that has over 31 million views. His video shows Jarvis standing in the airport as a TSA agent pats him down and takes extra measures to check his genital area multiple times.
“When he rubbed over my genitals I was awkwardly laughing because I didn’t know how to respond to it,” Jarvis told KRON. “You can see him touch my penis.”
Jarvis, who has a cochlear implant, can’t be scanned with TSA equipment and usually gets pat-downs instead, he explained on his TikTok. This instance, however, was what he called “next level.”
“It’s so obvious that he’s touching a specific ‘area’ for (a) long time and not checking anything else,” one viewer commented.
“I have a cochlear implant and flown many times. Never had this happen to me,” another viewer said.
McClatchy News reached out to TSA for comment and a spokesperson advised passengers to refer to its pat-down screening protocol for more information.
“TSA officers use the back of the hands for pat-downs over sensitive areas of the body,” the TSA screening website says. “In limited cases, additional screening involving a sensitive area pat-down with the front of the hand may be needed to determine that a threat does not exist.”
While some people defended the agent for doing his job, many viewers questioned the extensiveness of the pat down.
“This is not okay,” someone wrote on Jarvis’s video, a comment that over 1,200 other viewers liked.
Jarvis, who was laughing and glancing at the camera during the TikTok, told KRON it was a response to the uncomfortable situation, and not him “enjoying himself.”
“Unfortunately when you are in a situation where someone, particularly a person of authority, invades your space… In this situation it is out of my control,” Jarvis told the outlet.
This story was originally published September 14, 2022 at 3:34 PM with the headline "Extensive TSA pat down of hearing-impaired man makes TikTok squirm. ‘This is not okay’."
