Frontiers of freedom

I don't know if anyone else remembers the old "Mary Tyler Moore" TV show. (It was at one time one of my guilty pleasures.) In one epidsode, Ed Asner, playing TV news producer Lou Grant, says that he's the only person he knows his age in his position who doesn't have an ulcer.

"You know why? Because I know how to delegate blame. Nothing that goes wrong around here is my fault."

Isn't is nice to be the boss? Delegating blame is only one of the perks. Even if something comes up for which you are clearly to blame, you still can avoid any consequences. From the Detroit Free Press for Tuesday:

Whitmore Lake, Mich. (AP) - Teachers and a police officer acted illegally when they strip-searched 25 students after a theft at Whitmore Lake High School in 2000, a federal appeals court has ruled. ...

But the court said the teachers and officer need not pay damages to the students.

"At the time the searches were performed, the law did not clearly establish that the searches were unconstitutional under these circumstances," it wrote. ...

"The whole situation was unfortunate," said schools Superintendent Scott Menzel. "I think the decision means that the teachers were acting in good faith and were therefore protected under the qualified immunity laws."

Isn't that precious? What happened was that a student claimed to a teacher that some money - about $350 - had been stolen. So without consent and without any reason to suspect any particular student, the teachers, abetted by a cop, forced 25 teenagers to submit to strip searches. But despite that action being found illegal and unconstitutional, there are no consequences, no penalties. Just "tch, tch, don't do that again."

Why? Because, the court says, the law did not specify that this couldn't be done. Now, law or no law, I want to know is when it hell it became reasonable for anyone in their right mind to think that forced strip searches based on nothing more than idle suspicion that someone in the area might have been involved in a possible crime are legal and proper.

Oh, never mind, I know: When someone noticed that those targeted were students, a strange sort of semi-human species who have neither legal rights nor any right of privacy. Yes, it's all clear now.

Footnote: Menzel added "This won't happen again in Whitmore Lake." Actually, I hope it does - so someone can fry someone's ass for it.