Monday, August 01, 2005

TRAINING AT THE GERALD R. FORD INTERNATIONAL, OR LACK THEREOF!


Check this opinion article out! A TSA Training Coordinator who ACTUALLY DOES SOMETHING! The TSA must have hired this guy by mistake. I can, without a doubt, say that the one at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport does absofreakinlutely not a damn thing! Oh yeah, I forgot, he made a training video which was WRONG!

I have even read about a Training Coordinator who had a Police Bomb Squad do a demonstration for the Screeners. I think that one was at JFK. At a tiny airport such as the Gerald R. Ford International, one would think that the person in charge of training would have more time to be, what is the word I'm lookin for.........Oh Yeah! PROACTIVE! This putz in Grand Rapids does NOTHING! NADA! ZERO! ZILCH! Screeners have even been asked to sign their training sheets even though they were not complete. Anyway, read the following article.

Airport security folks deserve some applause
While most people agree that in a post-9/11 world airport screenings are a necessity, the Transportation Security Administration has become the agency travelers love to hate. Longer wait times to get to airport gates and people poking and prodding you when you are barely awake enough to find your ticket.

I want to buck the trend and give a big thank you to TSA at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. The extraordinary team led by federal security director Paul Wisniewski and training coordinator Cassandra Clark has been working for months to improve the way screeners work with passengers with disabilities and especially assistance-dog teams.

Beginning several months ago, TSA invited members of the Partners of Assistance Dogs Network to help train supervisory personnel. Assistance-dog trainers and partners, along with their dogs, reviewed the TSA procedures for working with people with disabilities and assistance-dog teams. Soon after, TSA trainer Curtis "Bob" Burns visited a Partners of Assistance Dogs meeting to explain the screening process to the partners and to demonstrate with the dogs.

To read the rest of the article just click on the post header. I think the Screeners at GRR would agree...I made my point!

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