{"id":118915,"date":"2026-09-23T19:25:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T00:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=118915"},"modified":"2026-09-23T20:21:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T01:21:22","slug":"118915","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=118915","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

NH School District Admits Unconstitutional Search of Student\u2019s Vehicle<\/a><\/p>\n

Because a New Hampshire teen legally owned a pistol and sometimes kept it in the glove compartment of his truck…, school officials conducted a warrantless search of the vehicle without his consent last year. They have acknowledged it was an unconstitutional search in a court agreement.<\/p>\n

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School officials in New Hampshire have acknowledged<\/a> they conducted an unconstitutional search of a student\u2019s vehicle in 2025, because he legally owned a handgun\u2014which was not in the vehicle, nor was it ever brought to the grounds of Hillsboro-Deering High School\u2014in full compliance with federal and state laws.<\/p>\n

According to the Second Amendment Foundation<\/a>, which filed a federal civil rights lawsuit last October on behalf of plaintiff Jack Harrington, the search was conducted \u201csolely on the basis of school officials learning that Harrington lawfully owned a firearm in his personal life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case is known as Harrington v. Crawford<\/a>.<\/em> The case was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

According to a stipulated declaratory judgment<\/strong>, \u201cA search of a student\u2019s person, property, or vehicle based solely on the exercise of a constitutional or legal right, including the fundamental right to keep and bears arms guaranteed under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (U.S. CONST. amend. II), which encompasses and includes the right to carry, store, or transport a handgun a vehicle or in the glove box of a vehicle, would constitute an unconstitutional and illegal search in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

This search occurred after Harrington apparently mentioned his gun ownership to another student while riding in a bus enroute to a game.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As noted in the original 18-page complaint, \u201cDefendants had no probable cause or reasonable suspicion to support their search of the subject vehicle (Harrington\u2019s truck) because there was no credible reason to believe that the handgun was in the Vehicle on that day, that Jack ever brought the handgun to school (he never did), or that he intended to bring his handgun to school. No part of the conversation between Jack and his teammate even suggested that Jack had ever or would ever bring a firearm to school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet school officials and a local police officer interrogated Harrington and conducted the search after both he and his parents refused to give permission for the search, which occurred on April 24, 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublicly acknowledging that you\u2019re a gun owner does not justify endless harassment or subject you to invasive searches,\u201d said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. \u201cThe overwhelming majority of gun owners are law-abiding peaceable people for their entire lives. Simply choosing to exercise your rights under the Second Amendment does not imply that you may do something criminal with a firearm and does not create reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed. If that were the case, then lawful gun owners like Mr. Harrington would not just be subject to search of their property on one day \u2013 but every day \u2013 unless and until they prove that they have sold their constitutionally protected property to the satisfaction of school officials. The Constitution prevents precisely that outcome and worked exactly as designed in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case was widely reported when first filed last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaintaining safety on school grounds is a laudable goal,\u201d said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. \u201cBut the Constitution demands that school officials have, at minimum, reasonable suspicion to search a student\u2019s property. Critically, choosing to exercise one\u2019s Second Amendment rights cannot be interpreted as a waiver of your rights under the Fourth Amendment, nor can it create reasonable suspicion of a crime. We\u2019re pleased the school district here has admitted their errors and reinforced that the fundamental rights of their students will be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n

As noted in the original complaint, \u201c\u2026after the Interrogation in which Jack repeatedly refused to consent to a search and after Jack\u2019s parents were contacted by phone and similarly refused to consent to a search, Defendants searched the Subject Vehicle anyway, finding no firearm.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complaint has been dismissed with prejudice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NH School District Admits Unconstitutional Search of Student\u2019s Vehicle Because a New Hampshire teen legally owned a pistol and sometimes kept it in the glove compartment of his truck…, school officials conducted a warrantless search of the vehicle without his consent last year. They have acknowledged it was an unconstitutional search in a court agreement. … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,59,24,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crap-for-brains","category-education-schools","category-rights","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=118915"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118918,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118915\/revisions\/118918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=118915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=118915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=118915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}