A disabled Tennessee teen was trying to make it home to celebrate the end of her brain cancer treatment last year— but instead she was bloodied and bruised by Memphis airport security and locked up in jail for a night, a new lawsuit says.
Hannah Cohen, 19, was traveling home to Chattanooga, Tenn. on June 30, 2015 after receiving a final round of radiation for a brain tumor at St. Jude’s hospital when she set off the the metal detector at the Memphis International Airport.
TSA agents told Hannah they needed to take her to a “sterile area” where they could search her, but the disabled teen was “confused” and tried “to get away from” the officers, her mother, Shirley Cohen, said.
Observing the situation escalate, her mother attempted to explain to the officers that the teen was impaired from radiation treatment, which left her deaf, blind in one eye and partially paralyzed, her family’s attorneys said.
“She is a St. Jude’s patient and she can get confused” Shirley Cohen attempted to tell them, but was restrained. “Please be gentle. If I could help her, it will make things better,” Cohen tried to say, according to the Guardian.
Cohen then watched the unfolding scuffle which left her disoriented daughter wounded.
“One of them had her down on the ground and hit her head on the floor. There was blood everywhere,” Cohen told WREG News.
Cohen reached for her phone as it came off the security’s conveyor belt, and snapped a photo of Hannah’s bloodied face as she cried in anguish.
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“I felt so helpless. I sat down on a bench facing away so I couldn’t see what they were doing to my daughter,” Cohen told the Guardian.
Hannah was cuffed and booked overnight in a Memphis jail instead of flying home and was reunited a day later in the jail’s parking lot, the suit says.
Cohen told the Guardian that her daughter collapsed in her arms and cried, saying “I’m sorry, Mama.”
A judge who saw Hannah’s injuries the next day tossed the charges against her and refunded the family’s $250 in court fees.
Now her outraged family has brought a lawsuit against the Memphis Airport, Airport Police, and the Transportation Security Administration accusing the agencies for discriminating against Hannah for her disability and not accommodating her during the screening process.
The federal suit alleges that TSA agents assaulted her at the checkpoint, "causing her physical and emotional injury as well as emotional injury" to her mother.
The TSA provided a statement to WREG News saying “Passengers can call ahead of time to learn more about the screening process for their particular needs or medical situation.”
Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority president and CEO Scott Brockman told the Commercial Appeal newspaper that “anybody can file anything, and we don’t comment on active litigation.”
“Clearly there are additional facts in the matter,” he said.
The suit seeks a “reasonable sum not exceeding $100,000 and costs.”
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