Police in Mashpee are asking for the public’s help in locating a 15-year-old girl missing since Sunday who is believed to be in danger and are investigating a fight at the town’s high school, videos of which have circulated on social media.
Aliyah Konton has not been seen since June 2 in the area of Cape Drive in the Barnstable County town, according to a Monday morning Facebook post. Konton is a freshman student at the Mashpee Middle-High School, WCVB-TV reported. Her photo is on a sign right outside the school building, footage from the station shows.
Anyone with information about Konton’s whereabouts is urged to contact Detective Sergeant Michael Assad at 508-539-1480, ext. 7237, police said.
On Tuesday, police confirmed they were investigating an assault and battery at the school involving two students.
The department’s school resource officer was “made aware” of the assault on May 25 and was also alerted to a video circulating on social media showing the incident. Police then immediately launched an investigation into the incident along with the district’s superintendent of schools and the Cape and Islands district attorney’s office, Chief Scott W. Carline said in a statement provided to MassLive.
“At this point in the investigation it would be inappropriate for me to comment until the investigation is completed,” Carline said in the statement.
Anyone with information about the fight is asked to contact the department’s detective bureau at 508-539-1480.
Police declined to comment when asked if Konton’s disappearance was linked to the fight. But, Andrea Leonard, who identified herself as a friend of the girl’s family, told WCVB-TV that Konton was the victim in the fight.
“There was some hitting and they pulled her into the bathroom, and then they forced her to lick the bathroom floor,” Leonard, who said she had seen the video, told the station.
Social media users appeared to draw the same connection.
“What are the consequences for the ones who in video dragged her by hair into school bathroom and hit her and made her lick the floor? May us parents get some answers?” wrote Selma Parker in a comment on the post announcing Konton’s disappearance. “An example and explanation that there are consequences to such behavior is essential [sic] to make us parents feel school is a safe place to send our kids — the community is failing these children — school should have a safe healthy environment — this is not ok.”
Parker’s profile says she lives in East Falmouth, which is roughly 15 minutes from Mashpee.
Another commenter, Jessica Valois, who said she had three kids in the school system, wrote “the lack of communication and the complete lack of accountability and consequences of perpetrators in the school system is beyond disgraceful.”
“I hope to God she’s found safe and alive and those kids on that video face the consequences of their horrific actions,” Valois continued.
