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Court Cases
 Two landmark decisions by the United States Supreme Court have cleared the way for public schools to implement student drug testing programs for athletes and participants in other extracurricular activities. Private schools are not constrained by similar legal limitations. They may drug test the entire student body.
US Supreme Court Rulings:
Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton, 1995
- Policy: To require all athletes take a urinalysis drug test in order to participate in sports activities.
- Challenge: Unconstitutional - Violation of children's right to privacy.
- Ruling: Student drug testing for athletes was held as constitutional.
- Decision: 6 to 3
Motivated by the discovery that some athletes were leaders in the student drug culture and concern that drug use increases the risk of sports-related injury, the petitioner school district adopted the Student Athlete Drug Policy, which authorized random urinalysis drug testing of students who participate in its athletic programs. IBH President Robert DuPont, M.D. was the school's expert witness in this historic case.
Source:
- PDF Supreme Court Case
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PDF Dissent
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PDF Opinion
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PDF Syllabus
Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County, et al, Petitioners v. Lindsay Earls et al., 2002
- Policy: To require all middle and high school students in Tecumseh, Oklahoma to consent to urinalysis testing for drugs in order to take part in any extracurricular activities.
- Challenge: Unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures.
- Ruling: Held constitutional. "Tecumseh's Policy is a reasonable means of furthering the School District's important interest in preventing and deterring drug use among its schoolchildren and does not violate the Fourth Amendment. Pp. 2564-2569."
- Decision: 5 to 4
Source: Supreme Court Case
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