By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
A federal court hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. next Thursday, Aug. 20 in Concord, New Hampshire to consider motions in a civil rights lawsuit filed by a high school graduate against school officials for conducting what the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) is calling an unconstitutional search of his vehicle in April 2025.
The case is known as Harrington v. Crawford, named for plaintiff Jack Harrington. His truck was searched, the lawsuit alleges, simply because of the fact that he is a legal gun owner and he sometimes keeps his legally-owned handgun in the vehicle, in full compliance with federal and state laws.
According to the New Hampshire Union Leader, the hearing in U.S. District Court will consider motions for summary judgment, filed by both SAF and attorneys for defendants Jennifer Crawford, Hillsboro-Deering school superintendent; Hillsboro-Deering High School Principal James O’Rourke and others.
“The school’s knowledge that Jack was a lawful gun owner outside of school did not justify their search of his truck,” said SAF Senior Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack in a media release. “They had no information to indicate he had ever brought the gun to school or had done anything illegal or against school policy whatsoever. The search they conducted could not have been supported by probable cause or even reasonable suspicion. Administrators ignored repeated insistent refusals by Jack to provide consent and now rest their hat on the fact that after telling him the search was going to happen regardless, he replied ‘okay.’ That is not consent in the eyes of the law. Jack’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated here.”
Harrington’s ordeal began on April 24 of last year when school officials removed him from class and, allegedly at Crawford’s instruction, he was “subjected…to a coercive interrogation without his parents or an attorney present.” School officials demanded that they be allowed to search his truck, but neither Jack or his parents—Thomas and Betsi Harrington, the vehicle’s owners—consented to the search.
As alleged in the original complaint, “Nonetheless, after the Interrogation in which Jack repeatedly refused to consent to a search and after Jack’s parents were contacted by phone and similarly refused to consent to a search, Defendants searched the Subject Vehicle anyway, finding no firearm. At the time of the Illegal Search, Jack’s legally owned firearm was safely stored at the Harringtons’ home, nowhere near the school campus.”
Months after he graduated, Harrington sued.
“School district officials took it upon themselves to infringe on a lawful gun owner’s rights based on the baseless ‘possibility’ that he had committed a crime, which is not sufficient to justify a search,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. “Being perceived as a lawful gun owner does not place you in a class of second-class citizens who are subject to search at any time. These school officials overstepped their authority here and we’re happy to help Mr. Harrington remind them of their duties under the Constitution.”
