Progun-
I can understand your feelings for the plight that your daughter is in, but you've just confirmed everything that we've been saying here. Yeah, it's not the best system, heck, it's not even adequate as your daughter can probably attest to herself. That's the point of speaking up. If everyone did you a favor and stayed quiet, your daughter would continue to have a crap job and not the respect, training, and pay that's due her. There's alot of folks out there that think that everything is magically solved now. That somehow the boogieman has gone away because we haven't heard from him in a while. That very soon everything will return to the way it was before 9/11. Well, frankly the way it was before 9/11 is the reason it happened in the frist place.
"Mall Ninja" jokes aside, non-LEO security personel are underpaid, undertrained and understaffed. They have the "Mall Ninja/Rent-a-cop" stereotype that goes along with it because in the past many of the employers have paid crap and gotten what they paid for. Take an armored car guy. He gets just over minimum wage and has to work 50hrs a week at least as part of the job. He hauls around millions of dollars, but they pay him crap, train him crap, and treat him like crap. Sure companies vary as to quality, but overall this situation needs to change in America.
We need to bring the requirements, standards, training and pay up with these people. That was what the govt said they were going to do, but it was just eyewash. It went back to the way it was. Your daughter would probably thrive in an enviroment that was more challenging, better respected, and better paid, wouldn't she? I'd bet she wouldn't have to put up with as many idiots as she's working with now. As long as we accept that the current mediocre system is alright, then mediocre security is what we will get. Staying quiet about things that are broken isn't the answer.
As for walking in her shoes, been there, done that. Not Airport, but the exact same job screening at other locations a LONG time ago. I know all too well the living hell that your daughter is going through. That's why I'll continue to speak.
Ross