TikToker Marc Winski reveals he was detained by TSA because of his stutter

TikToker Marc Winski revealed that he was detained by the Transport Security Administration at an airport because of his stutter.

Millions of people around the world suffer from some sort of speech impediment, whether it be a lisp, slur, or in Marc Winski’s case — a stutter.

As explained by the National Stuttering Association, stuttering is a speech impediment that involves disruptions, also called disfluencies, in a person’s speech. For example, a person with a stutter may repeat the ‘d’ in ‘dog’ multiple times.

To those who are unaware of its existence, the stutterer may be confused for someone who is nervous, as Marc Winski found out when he was detained by the TSA while traveling with his wife.

Marc Winski detained because of his stutter

“I got detained by TSA at the airport because of stuttering,” Marc explained.

He then went on to describe the event, saying he was heading through TSA check-in when the gate attendant asked where he was heading.

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“I’m going to Florida,” Winski replied. The employee didn’t seem to buy it, mentioning that Winski seemed nervous. The TikToker added, “No, I just stutter sometimes.”

At this point, he was detained by the TSA agent for an “extra pat-down.” Marc then asked his viewers if they believed it was discrimination. As his video gained traction, hundreds of people echoed the same answers — they believe it is.

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The writer of this article is a person with a stutter, and has been in very similar situations with law enforcement in the past. He took the experience as a way to educate himself on how security and other branches of law enforcement should handle situations like this.

Long story short, this event that is likely going to stick with Marc for the rest of his life probably wouldn’t have even happened if the TSA agent had used their proper training.

TSA Agents are trained to spot specific behavioral indicators, and having an obvious speech impediment isn’t one of them.