Parents Sue School After Disabled Teen's Sexual Assault: Patch PM

MASSACHUSETTS — It's Friday, February 12. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• The parents of a disabled high school student sued the Dennis-Yarmouth Public School District after the girl’s 2018 sexual assault.
• The recognition of Christopher Columbus takes another hit as officials get ready to discuss a new name for a Medford school.
• We don’t know who Massachusetts’ original Cupid is, but we're pretty sure that person is from the Worcester area.

Scroll down for those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Monday’s Top Story

The parents of a disabled high school student sued the Dennis-Yarmouth Public School District after their daughter was sexually assaulted in a high school bathroom by another student.

According to the lawsuit, the sexual assault happened in February 2018 at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School. The girl was 16, but had the mental capacity of a 6-year-old child because she was born with a rare genetic condition that causes significant cognitive impairments. As part of her learning plan, she required around-the-clock supervision while she was in school.

The lawsuit was filed on Feb. 1 in the U.S. District Court in Boston and lists the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District, teachers Abir Zaineh, Susan Hardigan and two other staff members as defendants in the case. The plaintiffs, whose names were withheld to protect the identity of the child, are seeking $500,000 in damages.

Superintendent Carol Woodbury did not respond to requests for comment.

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Today’s Other Top Stories In Massachusetts

Andrea Bocelli Elementary?: Official talks over a new name for the Columbus Elementary School won't begin until next month, but the School Committee briefly touched on some ideas for the renaming process at its meeting Monday. Some members said the new name should reflect Medford's Italian-American population. "I would hope if the name is going to be changed, we would think about other Italian-Americans or Italians that we would be able to recognize and honor the culture," Superintendent Marice Edouard-Vincent said. An example: Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, whose music the superintendent said she "loves."

Central Mass. Cupid: When you buy a Valentine's Day card for your sweetheart this weekend, you can thank Worcester's Esther Howland for the Feb. 14 tradition. Or maybe you should credit Grafton's Jotham Taft. Although people around the world were exchanging valentines long before the Massachusetts Bay Colony was established, the commercialization of the holiday in the U.S. was born in the Worcester area. But there's a bit of a dispute over whether it was Howland or Taft who invented the mass-market Valentine's Day card.

‘We Did It!’: One of the first people to get the vaccine in Westford was Hartwig "Dr. Hart" Achenbach – at age 99 last month. Now, the facility where he's staying is hoping to help him celebrate his 100th birthday surrounded by the well wishes of the community.

By The Numbers

106: That’s how old S. Prestley Blake, the co-founder of Friendly’s, was when he died Thursday. The businessman and philanthropist, born in 1914, co-founded the ice cream shop in 1935.

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Photo of the week

Newton resident Dawn Eswara caught this sunrise at the Franklin School last week as she drove up Derby Street.

Do you have a stunning photo of your neighborhood? Send it to Patch with a note about when and where you took it, be sure to note that you give Patch permission to use it, and it may be selected to be our photo of the day/week in an upcoming newsletter! Email: Jenna.Fisher@Patch.com