Texas Attorney General Opinion: LO95-034 Page: 2 of 4
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Honorable Judith Zaffirini - Page 2
age and sex of the student and the nature of the infraction." Id. at 342. Applying this
standard in T.L.O., the Court determined that under the facts of that case, a school
administrator's search of a student's purse was not unreasonable. Id. at 343.
The Court's standard for determining the reasonableness of a search requires a
thorough development of the facts regarding the reasons for the search and the way it was
carried out. Since an attorney general opinion cannot investigate or resolve questions of
fact, we cannot determine whether or not video camera surveillance in the locker room or
gymnasium would violate the Fourth Amendment rights of any student.
The Supreme Court did not decide whether individualized suspicion was an
essential element of the reasonableness standard, id. at 343 n.8, a question that appears to
be relevant to the legality of the surveillance of a group of students by video camera.
Moreover, the Supreme Court is again considering searches of public school students by
administrators, in a challenge to a school policy requiring routine drug testing for student
athletes. See Acton, 115 S. Ct. 571 (granting certiorari). In view of the developing state
of the law on searches of public school students, as well as the importance of evidentiary
matters in addressing such questions, we cannot predict how a court might rule on the
validity under the Fourth Amendment of the search you have outlined.
Second, the tort claim of invasion of the right of privacy may also be relevant to
the question you ask. An unwarranted invasion of the right of privacy constitutes a legal
injury for which a remedy will be granted. Billings v. Atkinson, 489 S.W.2d 858 (Tex.
1973). The Texas Supreme Court has approved the following definition of the right of
privacy:
[I]t it the right to be free from.. . the publicizing of one's private
affairs with which the public has 'no legitimate concern, or the
wrongful intrusion into one's private activities in such manner as to
outrage or cause mental suffering, shame or humiliation to a person
of ordinary sensibilities.
Id. at 859. But see Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code 101.051 (partial excluhision of school
districts from Texas Tort Claims Act).
The common-law right of privacy may be relevant to deciding whether an
individual has a "legitimate expectation of privacy" protected by the Fourth Amendment.
T.L.O., 469 U.S. at 339. Judicial decisions on an invasion of privacy at common law and
on the legality of searches and seizures consider whether an individual has an expectation(L095-034)
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: LO95-034, text, May 26, 1995; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth276520/m1/2/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.