Mother arrested over patdown of daughter

NASHVILLE, July 13 (UPI) -- A Tennessee woman was charged with disorderly conduct after refusing to allow airport security personnel to pat down her daughter, officials said.

Andrea Fornella Abbott allegedly yelled and swore at Transportation Security Administration agents at Nashville International Airport, saying she did not want her daughter to be touched inappropriately or have her crotch grabbed, a police report said.

When Abbott, 41, refused to calm down, airport police said, she was charged with disorderly conduct and taken to jail.

She has been released on bond, The (Nashville) Tennessean reported.

Abbot and her daughter were ticketed for a flight from Nashville to Baltimore on Southwest Airlines.

Public outrage over a video showing a pat-down of a 6-year-old girl at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in April prompted a new TSA policy that took effect last month in which airport security screeners must try to avoid invasive patdown searches of children, The Tennessean reported.

The TSA says it is instructing screeners how to make repeated attempts to screen young children without resorting to invasive patdowns.