Jones v. Graham County Board of Education, 197 N.C. App. 279 (Jun. 2, 2009)

County Board of Education policy mandating random, suspicionless drug and alcohol testing of all Board employees violated the N.C. Constitutional protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. The policy could not be justified as a “special needs search.” The court determined that the policy was “remarkably intrusive,” that Board employees did not have a reduced expectation of privacy by virtue of their employment in a public school system, and that there was no evidence of a concrete problem that the policy was designed to prevent. It concluded: “[c]onsidering and balancing all the circumstances . . . the employees’ acknowledged privacy interests outweigh the Board’s interest . . . .”