School Board of Palm Beach County Sued Over Drug Test Requirement

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Citing an alleged violation of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, a 65-year-old woman has filed a proposed class action against the School Board of Palm Beach County (Florida) that challenges the board’s policy of requiring all job applicants, even those applying for non-safety-sensitive positions, to submit to a suspicionless drug test. According to the complaint, the plaintiff—an “experienced, retired educator with a life-long love of teaching”—applied for several jobs with the defendant and completed the board’s prerequisites. The plaintiff, however, refused to submit to a scheduled drug test because “she is unwilling to forego her constitutional rights as a condition of employment.”

“[The defendant’s] All-Applicant Policy violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because it commands suspicionless searches of all applicants, without limiting the searches in any way to those applying for safety-sensitive positions that entail a concrete danger of real and broad-based harm,” the lawsuit argues.