A Valley woman is on a mission to change how the TSA screens airline passengers.
The effort comes after Corky Champagne-Einarsen who claims she was singled out at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport Feb. 20 -- the same day and location Alaska State Rep. Sharon Cissna made national news after protesting her own TSA screening experience.
"Every single time I go flying now, I have to be worried about being groped and touched," Champagne-Einarsen said.
Like Cissna, Champagne-Einarsen has a mastectomy scar from her battle with breast cancer in 1997. During the full-body scan, the scar appeared as a "dark anomaly," resulting in a TSA agent pulling her aside for an extensive pat-down which included the majority of her body except for her breast.
"Why were all these areas being touched after they already saw on the screen? They saw me completely naked through that screening process and they knew that the only are of concern was my breast, why did they feel it necessary to touch me everywhere else?" Champagne-Einarsen said.
She accuses the TSA of discriminating against women who have had breast cancer, resulting in a mastectomy.
"It's so much for women to go through, to find out you have cancer, to go through the survival process and come out the other side and have a feeling about yourself that you're whole and that you're human," said Champagne-Einarsen. "Then here we go again... One more agency, one more thing that's going to make us feel like we're separate, we're different. We have to be pulled aside and treated differently and I feel it's a bit of discrimination."
Champagne-Einarsen sent a petition to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security asking for the suspension of both the full-body scanners and full body pat-downs until the process is modified to exempt certain passengers.
