Ex-Peabody Teacher Abuse Case Headed Back To Grand Jury: Patch PM

PEABODY, MA — It's Thursday, March 4. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• An Essex County grand jury will look into allegations of sex abuse at Peabody Memorial High School beginning in 1999 and continuing after the victim graduated in 2003.
• Essex Tech students headed back to campus full-time in two weeks.
• The push to help people get vaccinated is getting some local help from Somerville.
• The Boston boyhood home of Malcolm X is getting some historic recognition.

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

Thursday’s Top Story

An Essex County grand jury will look into allegations of sex abuse at Peabody Memorial High School beginning in 1999 and continuing after the victim graduated in 2003.

The victim has sued the city of Peabody and the teachers involved in federal court. The former student, who is identified as John Doe in court documents, claims he was given drugs and alcohol and sexually abused by Lynette Occhipinti, a former educational assistant at the school, starting when he was a freshman at the school in 1999.

Read the full story here.

Patch wants to hear from you — We are joining in the remembrance of all the lives lost since the first coronavirus death in Massachusetts almost a year ago. If you've lost a loved one to COVID-19, Patch wants to hear their story, who they were and how they should be remembered. Email samantha.mercado@patch.com

Today's Other Top Stories

Essex Tech career and technical students headed back to campus —Essex Tech intends to bring back 75 percent of its students full-time on March 17 while developing a plan to return the remaining students to in-classroom learning soon thereafter. Superintendent Heidi Riccio said the plan — which the school committee approved on Wednesday — will return the Career Technical Education full-time, while academic classes remain in a hybrid- or remote-learning model until a final plan for all students to return is developed and approved.

Scammers pay up — A Melrose couple will pay $145,000 for their part in a plot that scammed elderly residents for tech support they didn't need. In a settlement announced Thursday by Attorney General Maura Healey's office, Shalu and Vishal Chawla also agreed to never again run tech support companies. Shalu Chawla owned VTech Software Solution and Techmate, Inc. His wife assisted in both companies' affairs.

Cape Coast Guard comes through — A U.S. Coast Guard crew from Cape Cod helped rescue 31 Canadian fishermen from a vessel that caught fire and sank about 130 miles off the Nova Scotia coast. The 143-foot Atlantic Destiny caught fire Tuesday night and began taking on water in high winds and rough seas, Coast Guard officials said.

They Said It

"The process was complicated and stressful, and it led me to look into what it looked like in Massachusetts."

— Somerville resident Diana Rastegayeva, who is organizing volunteers to help eligible Massachusetts residents secure COVID-19 vaccine appointments.

By The Numbers

1874 — That's when Malcolm X's boyhood Boston home was originally built. The house where the civil rights leader grew up was just added to the National Register of Historic Places.

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