School Principal/Grandmother is now a terrorist!

[Tripper11]

DES MOINES - Cecilia Beaman is a 57-year-old grandmother, a principal at Pacific Middle School in Des Moines, and as of Sunday is also a suspected terrorist.

"This is not right," she told us. It's not right!"

This past weekend she and several other chaperones took 37 middle school students to a Heritage Festival band competition in California. The trip included two days at Disneyland.

During the stay she made sandwiches for the kids and was careful to pack the knives she used to prepare those sandwiches in her checked luggage. She says she even alerted security screeners that the knives were in her checked bags and they told her that was OK.

"This Is Not Right"

Thank the gods...I feel so much safer now! :eyes:

[FreedomAngel82]

1. Oh My God

This is just insane. She even told them it was there! How can you be a suspect if you told them?

[gratuitous]

2. And what gets me . . .

Okay, let's say you're on an airplane, and four or five swarthy, bearded guys wearing turbans jump up, start ululating, and one of them yells that the plane is being hijacked.

What do you suppose is going to happen next?

Our Homeland Security enhancements are such a classic case study in wheel-spinning; spending money and manpower where it's needed probably the least, and ignoring things like container ships coming in all over our coastlines, uninspected and unexamined.

[tavalon]

3. nominated because each of these incidents of harrassing our own

this way must be in front of as many people as possible.

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. "in her checked bags " 4 years of face saving because chimp

didn't give a shit to do anything prior to 9/11.

[amazona]

5. not in her checked bag -- in her carry-on cooler

I'm sorry but if the nice lady can't keep track of her knife with the five-plus inch blade, which TSA found not in her checked luggage but in her carry-on, then she has to pay the same fine as anybody else who has a large knife in carry-on. We are not talking about nail scissors here. Someone who can't keep track of her knives maybe doesn't need to be chaperone of 37 children. I agree that she wasn't going to hijack the plane, but some child got have gotten ahold of that knife. Maybe I'm sensitive to this one, as a child, I was threatened by knife by another child. I feel she should have been damn sure of where all the knives were when she was in charge of that many children.

She wants special treatment as a 57 year old woman. I don't want anyone to get special treatment on my aircraft. Everyone should be treated the same. No special treatment for indignant school principals. No special treatment for anybody. As a school principal, she knows better. Does she give special treatment to the favored children when there is a problem? Oh, probably! I've had it with people who think everybody was created equal except for them.

[The_Casual_Observer]

8. And this is preventing them from using airplanes as missiles

to destroy the world trade center again right? Zero tolerance, that will do it, keep those nasty knives away from the old ladies and kids, god knows somebody could put their eye out!

[wtbymark]

6. My drummer went through something similar...

He's actually quite a famous chef (but I'll keep his name privy)
He recieved an engraved chef's knife from Charlie Trotter as a gift recently in Chicago. Little be known, my friend didn't know that Charlie's assistant put the knife (giftwrapped in a box with a bow)in my friend's carry-on bag. There is one significant difference between the school teacher and my friend, my friend is a republican and well i guess you could call him a millionaire. After speaking with security at O'Hare (and the guards knew who Charlie Trotter was) my friend said "flip a coin, winner gets the knife" - well there was one happy guard. My friend was delayed for about 4 hours, his luggage beat him home (which is another "no-no" nowadays) and he's not on any list - he flies constantly.

Lesson: i guess if you're not a republican with dough, then you will be harrassed - hell they would've thrown away the key with me.

[jilln]

7. This is good news.

The faster more of us that make it onto that list the better, because the only time the government is gonna FIX it is when the airlines start complaining that all their flights are late because they have to interrogate the knife-wielding grandmother, the Green party member, the person with an "Arabic-sounding" name, Cat Stevens and practically everyone else on the plane. Only when it affects corporations instead of people will they react.

And those who are arguing that she deserved it are nuts. She may deserve a fine and the law should definitely apply to all the same, but she is not a terrorist and does not deserve to be put on a list. Remember that up until recently anyone could carry a LIGHTER on a plane, which could do FAR more damage than one knife, but since the tobacco lobby wanted them to be declared safe they were. There is the law and then there is common sense. Rarely the same thing.