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CA6: Video surveillance of school locker rooms was unreasonable

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Video surveillance of school locker rooms was unreasonable, and Vernonia (the student athlete drug testing case) and T.L.O. (searches by school officials on reasonable suspicion) did not support the surveillance and keeping the tapes. Also, the surveillance did not have qualified immunity. Brannum v. Overton County Sch. Bd., 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 3496, 2008 FED App. 0083P (6th Cir. February 20, 2008): The Fourth Amendment does not protect all expectations of privacy; only those that society recognizes as reasonable and legitimate. T.L.O., 469 U.S. at 338. The Supreme Court has acknowledged that generally, students have a less robust expectation of privacy than is afforded the general population. Id. at 348 (Powell, J., concurring). Indeed, this expectation may be even less for student athletes in locker rooms, which the Court has previously observed are places "not notable for the privacy they afford...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on February 22, 2008 (boomark / email).