A sophomore at Texas Tech University, 19-year-old sorority girl Diana Durkin from Houston, Texas ran into an unexpected issue with TSA at William P. Hobby Airport after showing some school spirit.
Diana Durkin
Nominated “most spirited” in high school, Durkin carried her enthusiasm with her to Texas Tech, embracing the “wreck em’ and guns up” greeting students give each other accompanied by a makeshift gun made with the thumb and index finger. “I love Texas Tech,” explained the sorority girl to Buzzfeed News. “I love the people, I love the school. Anytime I see someone I get really excited.”
Carrying this enthusiasm everywhere she went, Durkin found herself at an airport in Houston while on her way to visit her best friend during the holidays. It was at William P. Hobby Airport that Durkin noticed a fellow Texas Tech student in the security line. The gentleman was wearing a Texas Tech sweatshirt and instinctually, the sorority girl gave the stranger the school’s gun symbol as a sign of camaraderie. “It’s a cool bonding thing. I tried to make eye contact with him and I throw my handgun up,” said Durkin.
The stranger either didn’t know the symbol or wasn’t as interested in school spirit as Durkin and gave her a strange look. A minute later, Durkin was being tapped on the shoulder by a TSA agent who asked her to leave the line so they could speak with her.
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The agent asked to see Durkin’s ID: “She said, ‘What are you doing? You can’t do that in an airport,’” said Durkin. The Texas Tech student shared she then became terrified her school spirit was going to get her arrested.
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Durkin revealed: “I’m just sitting there, almost in tears, like, ‘No, I’m just really dumb, I’m not a terrorist!’” Durkin said TSA gave her a full screening and pat down before they finally let her go with a warning. Durkin assured them she had no intention of ever doing it again.
After the ordeal, Durkin shared a tweet sharing her experience with TSA and it quickly went viral. Many people related to Durkin’s airport experience and began to share their own. The tweet was shared so many times that her mother is now referring to herself as Kris Jenner! “It’s definitely going to her head,” shared Durkin.
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