ORLANDO, Fla. — One year ago, the Spectrum News 13 Watchdog team broke the news about a culture of bullying and retaliation at the TSA inside Orlando International Airport.

The story made its way to Congress, which led to Homeland Security hearings on possible bullying and discipline within TSA.

U.S. Rep. Darren Soto told Spectrum News 13 about some of what he thinks Congress has been able to accomplish with TSA, such as adding 100 new officers in Orlando International Airport, helping end the government shutdown that some think led to TSA worker Robert Henry taking his own life, as well as adding parental leave for TSA employees.

But there’s still work to get done, and people we spoke to a year ago are either moving on, living day-by-day, or still waiting for their day in court.

For TSA explosives specialist David Platt, how he spends his time hasn’t changed.

“If the weathers good, I’m fishing,” said Platt, an Orlando TSA employee.

When he's not fishing, he's waiting for his day in court.

"Because... they violated my rights, I have an EO (executive order whistleblower) case," Platt said. "Originally, I had them together, and the judge determined that we needed to split them. Well, TSA made the case, because the process is this is TSA now. We’ll get you to burn more money and more time. We’ll slow you down, and now I have to pay lawyers for both cases."

Then there’s Sean SanRoman, who met with Spectrum News 13 only after expressing he was meeting with us under the Whistleblower Protection Act.

A year after Henry's death, he, too, is waiting for his day in court. But now, he has a permanent title and office space at Orlando Sanford International Airport as an assistant federal security director in charge of screening.

“My attorney and I have to file the lawsuit through the Office of the Special Counsel to address the whistleblowing infractions and violations that were created against me," SanRoman said. "I’m on standby right now.”

One person who could no longer stand by in Orlando was Felicita Alicea, who witnessed Henry's death. She had to go to counseling and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

According to Alicea, the culture and memory of witnessing Henry's death was too much for her to stay at her job at OIA.

“I just thought I needed a change, because I was still working at the same checkpoint that the incident took place," Alicea said.  "I thought I needed to get a new atmosphere."

She requested a transfer and relocated to Houston, where she still works for TSA. Soto says that although changes have been made at TSA in Orlando, the work isn’t done.

“There’s been some progress, and the old TSA administrator at MCO was relieved of duty," Soto said in his Kissimmee office. "So they did change management there as well. There has been some changes, but there is still some things left to do.”

Platt, who still remains at OIA, says interim Federal Security Director Pete Garcia has started to change the culture, and that change from the top has started to trickle down.

“What has changed for me is a drastic change in the senior management of MCO," Platt said. "So there is not a lot of focus on trying to hurt people or trying to fire them.”

Garcia is an interim director; Orlando's TSA has not had a full-time federal security director since April 2019.

“I think they should make a decision," Soto said. "If they think he is doing a good job, they should hire him on. Otherwise, they should already be doing a nationwide search.”

In an emailed response to our request for an interview or comment, a TSA spokeswoman said the agency has developed a suicide awareness training session to help employees identify warning signs and risk factors and communciate with people who may be in crisis. She said it also provides resources on its intranet to an Employee Assistance Program and to a new page that provides suicide prevention information and assistance.

The TSA email ended with, "Working together, we can save TSA lives."

We also reached out multiple times to interim FSD Garcia to talk about the changes at Orlando TSA. As of the initial publication of this article, he had not responded to our requests for comment. Additionally, our team reached out to former FSD Jerry Henderson. He, too, had not responded to multiple calls and emails.



"Green Mile" Update

When Orlando TSA workers talked about the "The Green Mile," they were talking about the area on the floor, away from the passenger checkpoints. They say this was used to make workers feel embarrassed, because your manager took your credentials away from you so you couldn’t handle luggage or passengers.

Henry had been assigned to this location in the past, before his death.

Workers tell Spectrum News 13 that this practice has ended since our first Watchdog report last year.