Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton

In Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton, 515 U.S. 646 , 648, 650, 664-65 (1995) the Court rejected a Fourth Amendment challenge to a school districts policy of conducting random urinalysis drug testing on student athletes, which required those students to urinate under teacher supervision. In doing so, it noted that T.L.O. emphasized that the States power over schoolchildren is custodial and tutelary, permitting a degree of supervision and control that could not be exercised over free adults. Id. at 655. In Acton, the schools role as a guardian and tutor was the most significant element in the Courts decision. Id. at 665. Considering the governments interest in deterring drug use by our Nations schoolchildren, the Court opined that the nature of the concern is important-indeed, perhaps compelling-which can hardly be doubted. Id. at 661. Students are the most susceptible to the physical, psychological, and addictive effects of drugs, id., and of course the effects of a drug-infested school are visited not just upon the users, but upon the entire student body and faculty, as the educational process is disrupted, id. at 662. Acknowledging that there was a less intrusive means of deterring drug abuse- drug testing on suspicion of drug use -Acton reiterated that there is no least intrusive requirement under the Fourth Amendment. Id. at 663. The suspicion-of-drug-use requirement was undesirable because it would add to the ever-expanding diversionary duties of schoolteachers the new function of spotting and bringing to account drug abuse, a task for which they are ill prepared, and which is not readily compatible with their vocation. Id. at 664. In Acton, the Court went further and approved random urinalysis of student athletes because, in part, school sports are not for the bashful and there is an element of communal undress inherent in athletic participation. Acton, 515 U.S. at 657.