Teen in truancy spat had eye on college
Jeffione Thomas, the 17-year-old Frankford High School football star injured after an alleged "tussle" with at least one of two school police truancy officers, had been looking forward to a football season peppered with interviews with college scouts, his lawyer said yesterday.
But after Thomas' encounter with the officers last Thursday, he missed an appointment with a college representative the next day, the lawyer, Jeffrey Nerenberg, said.
Nerenberg said that he was filing a personal-injury lawsuit against the school district and might also file a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the officers.
"This is a kid who was late to school, who wants to go to school, not ditch school," Nerenberg said.
Joyce Freeman, the boy's grandmother and legal guardian, said he suffered a black eye, broken blood vessels in his eye, cuts to his lips and several loosened teeth.
Nerenberg said Thomas would need to see a plastic surgeon, an orthopedic surgeon and an orthodontist "because his mouth was ripped about." He said Thomas might have to miss the rest of the football season.
Nerenberg and Freeman said Thomas had several brushes with the law when he was younger and had spent time at a disciplinary school in Delaware County before transferring to Frankford last year as a sophomore.
School officials said he had not been in trouble since his arrival.
"He's a star running back trying to reclaim his life, maybe play college football," Nerenberg said. "He knew any more screw-ups would lead to losing that chance."
School district officials said two police officers assigned to a truancy "sweep" team saw Thomas on Oakland Street, about a block from his school at 9:45 a.m. last Thursday.
But according to friends and relatives, Thomas had overslept and had to catch a bus from his Oxford Circle home. They said he was walking toward school when the officers tried to stop him.
The police officers' report said that Thomas had punched one officer, but witnesses told the Daily News that Thomas "walked, not ran" into the school, at Oxford Avenue near Wakeling Street, when the officers "came into the school and grabbed him."
His grandmother said that Thomas was back in school yesterday.
"He was minding his own business and was on his way to school when these guys tried to stop him," she said.
The district is investigating. Vincent Thompson, a district spokesman, said anyone with information about the incident should call 215- 400-6000.
"We do this all over the city," Michael Lodise, head of the union representing school police, said of the truancy sweeps when officers see young people on the street.
Thomas has been charged as a juvenile with assaulting a police officer and making terroristic threats.
