Student, Football Star Sues School District for Injuries

A 17-year-old star football player for Frankford High School in Pennsylvania said he will file a personal injury lawsuit against his school district after an alleged fight with school police truancy officers.

According to school officials, two police officers assigned to a "truancy sweep" team confronted the student, Jeffione Thomas, about a block from the school at about 9:45 a.m. last Thursday, the Philadelphia Dailey News reports. The lawsuit claims that the confrontation resulted in a "tussle" that left Thomas with a black eye, broken blood vessels, cuts to the lips and several loosened teeth.

Though a police report says that the student initially punched one of the officers, witnesses told the news provider that Thomas walked into the school and was grabbed by the appointed truancy officials.

Though the football player had several brushes with the law when he was younger, school officials say he had stayed out of trouble since he arrived at Frankford a year earlier, as a sophomore.

"He's a star running back trying to reclaim his life, maybe play college football," the student's lawyer Jeffrey Nerenberg told the news source. "He knew any more screw-ups would lead to losing that chance."

Thomas has been charged as a minor with assaulting a police officer and making terroristic threats.