New Hampshire School Officials Illegally Searched a Student’s Truck Just Because He Was a Gun Owner: Lawsuit

An 18-year-old former high school student is suing his New Hampshire school district in federal court over a forced search of his truck after allegedly finding out that he was a registered gun owner. Jack Harrington says he was pulled from his class at Hillsboro-Deering High School and subjected to a “coercive interrogation” without his parents or an attorney present based solely on his status as a lawful firearms owner. His lawsuit claims they demanded permission to search his truck for firearms.The events started in April when Mr. Harrington had a conversation with a fellow student while on a bus ride to a varsity baseball game. Mr. Harrington recounted that he had been pulled over and told the police officer that he had a handgun in his glove compartment. Mr. Harrington told the student that he was nervous because he was new to carrying a firearm and didn’t have experience with such interactions. He then went on to say the incident ended up being uneventful and he went on his way.Mr. Harrington was not on his way to or from school at the time of the traffic stop.Parts of the conversation made their way to school officials after other athletes on the bus told the coach.On the morning of April 24, officials called Mr. Harrington to the office shortly after classes started and they started questioning him about being a gun owner.“You have a gun in your truck sometimes, right?” Mr. Harrington was asked. He confirmed that he sometimes transported a gun in his truck but reiterated that he had never brought a firearm to school. The officials then said they had to search his truck.Mr. Harrington denied permission and when his parents were contacted, they also refused. Despite this, school officials allegedly forced the door to the truck open and searched it. They didn’t find Mr. Harrington’s Glock 43 handgun, which the family says was properly stored in their home nowhere near the school.The lawsuit contends that school officials had no reason to believe that Mr. Harrington had a weapon in his vehicle other than relying on a school “rumor mill” connected to the bus conversation.The lawsuit calls the search illegal and a “dangerous and unacceptable precedent and a violation of Mr. Harrington’s Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search.Mr. Harrington graduated weeks after the incident. He and his family are not willing to speak publicly about the incident but the Second Amendment Foundation is representing Mr. Harrington and is speaking out.“The apparent position of the school district here is ‘choose to exercise one right, give away another.’ That’s just not how it works,” the director of legal operations at the Second Amendment Foundation, Bill Sack says. “If simply being a gun owner is legal justification to be harassed and searched by authorities, what would stop them from submitting gun owners like Jack to searches every day?”New Hampshire is a permitless carry state and the open carry and concealed carry age is eighteen so Mr. Harrington was legally allowed to own the gun.“This is the type of fearmongering response we’d expect elsewhere around the country, but not in a state that allows its adult residents to legally own and possess firearms,” the founder of the foundation, Alan M. Gottlieb said.The suit requests a jury trial and does not ask for a specific payment for damages.School district officials did not immediately return a New York Sun request for comment.

New Hampshire School Officials Illegally Searched a Student’s Truck Just Because He Was a Gun Owner: Lawsuit

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