Girl in wheelchair tested for explosives

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DALLAS, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is being criticized by a Texas mom for testing her wheelchair-bound daughter for explosives.

Tammy Daniels told WFAA-TV, Dallas, she was taking her 12-year-old daughter, Shelbi Walser, to Tampa, Fla., Sunday for treatment for brittle bone disease when TSA screeners at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport decided to check the girl for explosives. The test came back positive, which Daniels theorizes could have been the result of her getting fertilizer on her hands from pushing her wheelchair's wheels.

She and her daughter made their flight, but not before some tears were shed, despite an official telling Shelbi, "It's OK, you didn't do anything wrong, we're going to get you on your way."

"I am by no means undermining our safety in the air," Daniels said. "After 9/11, by no means am I doing that. But, when it comes to children, commonsense is not in a textbook."

The TSA said in a statement it is sensitive to the concerns of passengers.

"We work to balance those concerns with the very real threat that our adversaries will attempt to use explosives to carry out attacks on planes," the statement said.