Thursday, September 6, 2001
Almonte enrolls in Bronx's Public School 52
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- The 1.1 million children heading back to school
this week included overage Little Leaguer Danny Almonte, who is
attending eighth-grade bilingual classes at Public School 52 in the Bronx.
Danny, whose Rolando Paulino team was banned from Little League
after officials in the Dominican Republic ruled that he was 14,
showed up at school as promised on Thursday, said Board of
Education spokeswoman Catie Marshall.
It was Danny's first day at an American school -- although team
officials originally said he attended school in the Bronx last
year.
On Tuesday, officials in the Dominican Republic charged Danny's
father with falsifying a birth certificate to make his son appear
to be 12 when he actually was 14 and thus too old for Little
League.
Felipe de Jesus Almonte "will be arrested as soon as he sets
foot in this country," said Victor Romero, a public records
official in the Dominican Republic. The father is still in New York
and faces three to five years in jail if convicted.
Also on Tuesday, school officials said Almonte had been
finishing seventh grade in the Dominican Republic until June 15 --
another reason he should not have qualified for Little League
championships.
The New York team was stripped of its third-place finish in the
World Series after Almonte's actual age was revealed last week.
Little League also voided all of Almonte's records, including a
perfect game.
In an interview with The New York Times, Danny's stepmother,
Marisol Maria Inoa Sanchez de Almonte, begged the Dominican and
U.S. government's forgiveness on behalf of her husband.
"We had to commit this little fraud to give this opportunity to
this child," Inoa Sanchez said in a story in Thursday's Times.
