A New Hampshire School Just Admitted Searching a Senior’s Truck Because He Owned a Gun

SAF dated the release September 22, 2026, Bellevue, Washington. The case is Harrington v. Crawford. Plaintiff: Jack Harrington. The district: Hillsboro-Deering. SAF filed in October last year after school officials searched Harrington’s vehicle on Hillsboro-Deering High School grounds “solely on the basis of school officials learning that Harrington lawfully owned a firearm in his personal life.” He owned a handgun, sometimes carried it in the truck “in full compliance with all federal and New Hampshire state laws,” and “never brought the gun to school, which he knew was prohibited.” After an interrogation in which he “repeatedly refused to consent to a search,” and after his parents were called and “similarly refused to consent,” the defendants “searched the Subject Vehicle anyway, finding no firearm.” It was “safely stored at his home, nowhere near the school campus.”

SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut: “Maintaining safety on school grounds is a laudable goal. But the Constitution demands that school officials have, at minimum, reasonable suspicion to search a student’s property. Critically, choosing to exercise one’s 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.” Founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb: “Publicly acknowledging that you’re a gun owner does not justify endless harassment or subject you to invasive searches.” If ownership itself were suspicion, Gottlieb wrote, owners would be searchable “every day” until they proved they had sold the gun.

The district admitted the Fourth Amendment violation in Harrington’s case. SAF calls it a win. It is not a Supreme Court opinion, and it does not, on the face of the release, bind every other school in America. What it binds is this search, this truck, this student: lawful ownership was not the warrant.