In its "stare decisis" ruling upholding a Pennsylvania school district's random drug-testing policy, a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals nonetheless declared its disagreement with a similar panel's 1998 decision upholding another district's policy of random, suspicionless drug, alcohol, and tobacco testing. (MLH)

By upholding a student's refusal to provide a urine sample, the Seventh Circuit Court correctly avoided further erosion of the Fourth Amendment's privacy principle. In "New Jersey v T.L.O." (1995), the U.S. Supreme Court shrunk the probable-cause standard to reasonable suspicion in the special context of public schools, retaining the…

In recent years, public school students have been searched with metal detectors and occasionally sniffed by dogs or strip searched. Their lockers and bookbags have been searched, and their urine has been tested for drugs--all in the name of school safety. This article explores the legal ramifications of such searches and calls for a critical…

In June 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Vernonia (Oregon) School District's right to conduct random drug tests of its student athletes. The court balanced a seventh grader's privacy interest with the state's interest in curbing drug abuse among student athletes. Before adopting drug-testing policies, school boards should assess the local…

In a case involving questionable canine search-and-seizure practices, a circuit court upheld a school board's decision to terminate a teacher's contract. While touting zero tolerance, the board fired an honored teacher 3 years from retirement who may not have known about the marijuana cigarette in her car. (MLH)