Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 v. Earls

In Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 v. Earls, 536 U.S. 822, 122 S. Ct. 2559, 2562-63, 153 L. Ed. 2d 735 (2002), the Court, relying on Vernonia Sch. Dist. 47J v. Acton, 515 U.S. 646, 652, 132 L. Ed. 2d 564, 115 S. Ct. 2386 (1995), upheld a drug-testing policy that required all students who participated in any extracurricular activity to submit to drug testing. 536 U.S. at , 122 S. Ct. at 2562. In both cases, the Court repeatedly emphasized the unique nature of the public school environment, where the Fourth Amendment is interpreted more leniently with respect to searches. Earls, 536 U.S. at , 122 S. Ct. at 2565 ("Fourth Amendment rights . . . are different in public schools than elsewhere; the 'reasonableness' inquiry cannot disregard the schools' custodial and tutelary responsibility for children.") (quoting Vernonia, 515 U.S. at 656); id. ("Central . . . is the fact that the subjects of the Policy are: (1) children, who (2) have been committed to the temporary custody of the State as schoolmaster.") (quoting Vernonia, 515 U.S. at 654); id. ("When the government acts as guardian and tutor the relevant question is whether the search is one that a reasonable guardian and tutor might undertake.") Obviously, unlike a public school student, a firefighter's right to privacy, although limited in some respects, is not inherently "subject to greater controls than those appropriate for adults." Id.