Teenager Sues Freeman District Over Injury To Eye
Feb. 9, 1994, is a day etched forever in Troy Speziale’s mind.
He was playing a fast-paced, soccer-like game during a Freeman High School physical education class. He reached for the ball and at that moment, someone kicked it, from about a foot away, into his right eye.
His retina was torn, and Speziale, then 15, lost most of his vision in that eye.
On Friday, the teenager, through a guardian ad litem, filed a lawsuit charging Freeman School District with negligence. His mother, Angie Speziale, said the accident should have been prevented. The game, which has been around for years, is too dangerous, she said.
She also advocates protective eye wear for all ball sports. “It’s just common sense. Given any soccer sport, that could happen to any kid. If it can happen once, it can happen again.”
The district was negligent in having students play such a dangerous game without proper eye protection, Angie Speziale said.
Freeman school officials would not comment because of the pending lawsuit.
The game Troy Speziale was playing is called “speed ball,” said physical education teacher Art Bickler. It’s a mix between soccer and basketball. If the ball is on the ground, it can be kicked. If it’s in the air, it can be caught. Points are scored by making baskets or kicking goals.
After the accident, Speziale’s eye was bleeding, he had no balance and was throwing up, his mother said. The eye doctor who operated on Speziale said the damage was done instantly.
“This isn’t something you fix on the play field,” said Dr. Jerry LeClaire. “This isn’t something you fix, period.”
But Speziale’s injury doesn’t convince LeClaire that protective eyewear should be mandatory for all ball sports, as the boy’s mother advocates. For sports such as racquetball and squash - where the ball is much smaller - yes, he said. But not for sports such as soccer and football.
“You can’t protect everybody from everything all the time,” LeClaire said. “The goalie (in soccer) has to do all the time what Troy was doing, and (the goalie) doesn’t wear eye protection.”
In the year since his accident, Troy Speziale has adjusted to his partial blindness. He’s also switched schools. Now he’s a junior at Central Valley High School, and both of his light green eyes are big and beautiful.
Even though it’s his first year at CV, he’s been elected vice president of the student body, an office he’ll begin serving in September. While at Freeman, he played hockey in a youth sports league, and was on the school’s football and track teams. Now he just runs - track and crosscountry - because his depth perception was thrown off after the accident.
On a red school binder, he’s written ‘49.52’ big in blue ball point pen. That’s the time, in seconds, he needs to qualify for the state championships in the 400-meter run. Right now, he runs it in 52 seconds.
He’s mature for his age and speaks in a quiet, measured tone about the accident and his partial blindness.
“When it first happened, it was the ‘why me?’ thing,” he said. “Now, it’s an obstacle. You can let it crush you, or you can overcome it.”