Mashpee police continue to search for missing teen, separately investigate high school fight

Lina PortmanJune 6, 2024

1 2 minutes read

Amid community outcry, several law enforcement agencies are searching for a 15-year-old Mashpee girl who was last seen Sunday and may have been the victim of a bullying incident inside the high school of the city, officials announced Wednesday.

Mashpee police described Aliyah Konton, who was last seen in the Cape Drive area of Mashpee, as “in danger” in a Facebook post Monday when they began searching for the teen, a freshman at Mashpee Middle/High School.

On Wednesday, Cape and Islands District Attorney Robert Galibois said police had developed a number of leads, which several law enforcement agencies are pursuing.

“There are so many people watching. The community outcry is incredible. And we recognize that and we try to respond appropriately,” he said. “We're talking about a missing girl. We want to do everything we can.

“I can confirm that we have leads and several law enforcement agencies are actively looking for her.”

Galibois said he could not say whether Konton was the teenager shown in a video widely shared on social media. In the footage, the girl, who is wearing plaid pajama pants and a T-shirt, is slapped in the face by another student, dragged into a bathroom by her hair and forced to lick the bathroom floor. bath.

Galibois said the investigation into the attack shown in the video has been completed and “we will probably have a new announcement” about it later Wednesday. He declined to provide further details.

Parents whose children attend the Mashpee school complained that school officials failed to inform them of the assault, which occurred late last month.

On Wednesday, Mashpee Public Schools Superintendent Patricia M. DeBoer said school administrators responded quickly after the state Department of Children and Families alerted them to the recording. assault.

“Immediately after receiving an email from DCF early in the morning of May 24, containing the TikTok video of the incident, we contacted our Mashpee School Resource Officer, Katie Hennessy,” DeBoer said via email. “The offending student was immediately removed from school and remains absent at this time. »

DeBoer wrote that she could not provide more information “as there is an active police investigation into the incident.”

A parent who commented on the police department's post about the missing girl said the two incidents were related.

“It's horrible to hear about this horrible incident on Facebook a week later, and not from the school itself, as we have 3 children at this school,” she wrote. “The lack of communication and the total lack of accountability and consequences for perpetrators of crimes in the school system is beyond scandalous. I hope to God that she was found safe and sound and that the children in this video face the consequences of their horrible actions.

Tonya Alanez can be reached at [email protected]. Am here @talanez. John R. Ellement can be contacted at [email protected]. follow him @JREbosglobe. Shannon Larson can be reached at [email protected]. Am here @shannonlarson98.