A nationwide controversy over the right of privacy has arisen as a result of companies probing into their workers' habits and health through such means as mandatory drug tests, electronic databases, and lie detector tests. The legal claims arising from these civil suits against employers for invasion of privacy have established precedents that are now being applied to schools and their personnel. These latter cases are reviewed in this paper. It begins with a historical background on the legal right of privacy, starting with Hebrew and Roman law, and moving through European legal concepts to the United Nations covenant on human rights and the American experience from 1890 to the present. The next section discusses constitutional bases for the right of privacy, deriving from Supreme Court cases that interpret the 1st, 4th, 5th, 9th, and 14th Amendments. The following section then specifically addresses privacy concerns for educators. The tradition of the teacher as exemplar for behavior standards is first reviewed, followed by a discussion of the current view that if a teacher is to be disciplined for private conduct, there must be a connection between the act and his or her role as an effective teacher. Cases are reviewed that construe various aspects of this standard. The final section addresses four areas of future privacy concerns for educators: (1) drug testing; (2) search of employees' desks and files; (3) the use of audiotape recorders in schools; and (4) the schools and children with AIDS. The Ninth Amendment, allowing for implicit rights not explicitly recognized in the Bill of Rights, suggests that other rights may yet surface. Footnotes are included. (TE)