“It’s not illegal, but we’re gonna detain a teenager and treat him like a security threat, anyway.”

  • AA (probably)
  • DogMuffins
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    25
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    Refund his ticket and don’t let him on the plane

    They probably have a duty of care given that he’s a minor.

    Who knows what “detained” really means in this circumstance.

    For all we know the kid could’ve asked the officials how to skip lag. “I need to go home to x but this ticket says y and I don’t want to go there”.

    • nandeEbisu@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      27
      ·
      1 year ago

      I get where you’re coming from as the article is told from a specific perspective, but they were perfectly happy to maroon the kid in a strange city by making him do the full flight, so I don’t think they were looking out for him.

      I don’t remember the specific age for domestic flights, but if he was travelling on his own without needing what is essentially a chaperone, then he was at least 15 or so. So a minor, but old enough to take care of himself. I don’t think they had a duty of care any more than a McDonalds cashier does when a group of teenagers go there on their own to order food. I’ve done those kinds of flights when I was younger and its actually not trivial to just leave at the wrong airport when you get that kind of chaperone treatment.

      These were security agents who pulled him out of line unprompted and took him into a secure room. Even if he admitted he wanted to skip-lag, that’s not illegal so why bring him to a back room if not to intimidate him and get his parents to pay up?

    • pmmetits@lemmy.fmhy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      1 year ago

      I mean. You could read the article. It said that they took him to an interrogation room. And that his dad bought the ticket without knowledge that this was a frowned upon practice because they had been doing it for years.

      • DogMuffins
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        Settle down mate.

        I did read the article. The kids dad said he was “interrogated”. Do you think he’s a reliable source?