TSA to ax worker who left note in bag with sex toy
November 13, 2011 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
A Transportation Security Administration baggage screener who left a note saying “Get your freak on girl” inside a woman’s suitcase that contained a sex toy will be fired, the agency said Friday.
The unidentified screener at Newark Liberty International Airport wrote the message on the back of a Notice of Inspection slip that TSA places in bags that require a physical search.
Jill Filipovic, a Manhattan blogger and lawyer, discovered the personal message when she unpacked her bags after arriving in Ireland on Sunday.
She tweeted a photo of the slip and blogged about it Monday: “Total violation of privacy, wildly inappropriate and clearly not ok, but I also just died laughing in my hotel room.”
TSA responded Thursday in a message posted on the agency’s blog:
“TSA has completed its investigation of this matter, and has initiated action to remove the individual from federal service.”
“Like all federal employees,” the agency added, “this Transportation Security Officer is entitled to due process and the protections embodied in the Privacy Act. Pending the completion of the removal action, the employee will not perform any screening duties.”
That’s official federal lingo for: The worker will be fired.
Filipovic, who didn’t respond to an email Friday, later wrote on her blog, Feministe, about the impact: “Lesson learned: Don’t tweet anything you don’t want to appear on The View,” a reference to the television talk show that was one of many places her story was told.
She wrote Wednesday that she feared she always would be known for the tale and that she wanted the story to fade away. She also wrote that she didn’t want the worker fired as a scapegoat.
“The problem with the note,” Filipovic wrote, “is that it’s representative of the bigger privacy intrusions that the U.S. government, through the TSA and other sources, levels every day.”
