sailor: Your entire posting just above is pure bs. There are security guard companies that hire from students at local colleges for the very good reason that it’s good for both the company and the student. I would find it hard to believe that a college provides “little education” or that its students “cannot aspire to better jobs.”
Anthracite: Would you have considered talking to the guard’s supervisor had you not gotten in a huff? If anyone were to exact retribution on the case, wouldn’t you have had recourse?
Then they are doing a very poor job. Places that check receipts on exit generally deal with the more expensive merchandise, and are trying to stop “sweethearting” more than shoplifting. (Shoplifting is controlled the usual way). Without this level of control, it is not unusual for a cashier to let a friend of theirs through the line while conveniently “forgetting” to ring up that $400 scanner.
With the guard checking receipts, both the guard AND the cashier would have to be in on the deal.
Security jobs are popular with students because they’re used to the low pay, and often get plenty of time to study while on duty (when they’re minding a reception desk late at night there isn’t much else to do).
My guess, though, is that even most security guards would let the occasional bigoted comment slide without making a big deal of it. It is simply in the nature of things that you remember the asshole guard who put you through the wringer much better than the guard who helped jumpstart your car when you’d left your lights on…so, when somebody mouths off about simians, just figure they’re evoking the set of the jerks they met – not that they are on some kind of crusade to send all security guards to the death camps.
Okay, folks. This is not the place to argue about the relative merits of security guards in general. Take it to the Pit if you feel you must.
The general question here is whether a person with diabetes can be legally prevented from taking their insulin and syringes into a government building. Nothing else.
Thank you for bringing this on-track, bibliophage, and I apologize if this was a contentious query. I think I was more concerned because I seem to spend more and more time in government offices nowadays, and I’m concerned about government agencies (the INS in particular) and how this impacts my carrying of my insulin. It’s quite scary to have your medicine taken from you by a large hulking security guard and not know if you have any rights or not.
Thank you everyone who took the time to respond here!
"I would add the obvious point that, even before disposal, syringes can create public-health concerns at rock concerts. They might be used to inject drugs besides insulin. Not only might the syringes brought into the concert by diabetics end up being abused in this way by the diabetic or his friend or someone who one way or another gets hold of his syringe, but soon nondiabetics will pretend to be diabetics and bring in syringes, too. Sure, you could require a certified doctor’s note, and no junkie would dream of trying to forge that. Right. http://www.nationalreview.com/clegg/clegg042902.asp
On planes:
“The pumps are loaded with a clear liquid [insulin], and the patients tell me they’ve had to explain to airport security what the fluid is. I guess there’s concern it might be nitroglycerine or anthrax,” said Dr. Prendergast, known on the Internet as Dr. Joe, in a telephone interview." http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/news/Nov2001/MedicalSuppliesAirportSecurity.html
It’s a risk assessment issue. Do we change the policy set by the ADA?
Which policy decision will lead to more deaths?
Then you have your related issues: Diabetics could stop going to government buildings, going to concerts, and travelling by air.
Or the policy could be to tolerate the terrorist/dope-user risk in this issue, as we tolerate the automobile-related death rate as a price of driving.
And you have your gut-reaction issue, where death by terrorism is far worse than death by car crash. But death by bureaucratic over-control interfering in personal medical maintenance would give a lot of us a major gut-reaction also.
My own personal expericence in this area was a few months ago when I had to report for jury duty here in NYC. I carry an asthma inhaler at all times, which doesn’t have a perscription label on it (that goes on the box it comes in) and when I went thru the security check point I just put it in the basket with my keys and pocketed it after going thru the metal detector. The security guards (Court Officers) didn’t even blink. Now, maybe this was due to a higher level of competency on the part of the officers or maybe it wasn’t, but either way, you can’t expect a asthmatic or a diabetic (which I also am) or anyone else who has a condition requiring immediate access to some form of medication to be without it due to some over zealous, badly trained or stupid security person.
Even without the ADA it just doesn’t make sense.