NCJ Number
110943
Journal
University of Illinois Law Review Volume: 1987 Issue: 2 Dated: (1987) Pages: 275-310
Date Published
1987
Length
36 pages
Annotation
A New Jersey school district's policy requiring testing of all students for drugs and alcohol is unconstitutional under both traditional fourth amendment principles and the modern balancing analysis.
Abstract
The policy was adopted by the Carlstadt-East Rutherford Regional School District and was challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union on the grounds that it proposed a search without individualized suspicion. The New Jersey court struck down the policy on fourth amendment grounds. The policy does not require the school district to obtain a warrant or to have probable cause with respect to a particular student or even with respect to the collective student body before conducting the test. Thus, the policy is unconstitutional under traditional fourth amendment analysis. The policy also proposes an unconstitutional test under the balancing analysis that the U.S. Supreme Court outlined in New Jersey v. T.L.O. In weighing the interests of the school district against the interests of the students, a court must find that the students' interests prevail. The school district cannot consider drug use analogous to a contagious disease, because it is not spread by germs or bacteria. Morever, the school district acts outside its authority in carrying out the testing program. In contrast, the students' privacy interests are paramount. Courts should prohibit student drug testing until the school district can justify the use of dragnet testing and can adequately protect the privacy interests of each student. 195 references.