A Massachusetts high school is in turmoil after a student went missing days after receiving a savage beating from another girl who made her lick the bathroom floor.
A gloating friend of the bully filmed the attack on Aliyah Konton at Mashpee High School before ensuring that the humiliating footage went viral on Snapchat.
The 15-year-old had only recently moved to the school in Cape Cod and was trying to ‘fit in’ according to a classmate.
A school resource officer alerted police after discovering the video on May 25, but parents were kept in the dark about the attack until Aliyah disappeared eight days later.
‘The lack of communication and the complete lack of accountability and consequences of perpetrators in the school system are beyond disgraceful,’ wrote a mother of three children at the school.
Aliyah Konton, 15, disappeared days after receiving a savage beating from another girl at Mashpee High School in Massachusetts
A gloating accomplice filmed as Aliyah’s tormentor made her lick the bathroom floor
‘I hope to God she’s found safe and alive and those kids on that video face the consequences of their horrific actions.’
The video opens with Aliyah standing alone in a school corridor as her attacker squares up to her and an audience of students watches in the background.
They gasp in shock as the bully casually slaps her victim in the face before sauntering away.
It then cuts to the school bathroom where the accomplice has stationed themself to catch the moment the bully strides through the door dragging a screaming Aliyah by her hair.
The 15-year-old starts sobbing as she is thrown by her hair towards the cubicles at the end of the room and punched again in the face by her circling attacker
Aliyah puts out an arm to fend off the girl but it offers no defense against her agile attacker who lands a flurry of blows on her head.
A moment later the young bully suddenly points a finger at the floor by the garbage can.
‘Lick the ground,’ she demands.
Aliyah hesitates and is slapped in the head again before being dragged by her hair to the ground and forced to put her face to the floor.
Eight days later an ‘intense search using multiple local, state and federal resources’ was underway after Aliyah disappeared from her Mashpee home, news of the attack was released, and parents reacted with fury to what they had just discovered.
But it was only after Aliyah disappeared that parents found out about the attack
Classmates, Leah Holtz, said that Aliyah had only recently joined the school. ‘She just seems like she was trying to fit in and just trying to make friends with everybody,’ she told WCVB.
Eight days later an ‘intense search using multiple local, state and federal resources’ was underway after Aliyah disappeared from her Mashpee home
‘It’s awful to find out about this horrific incident on Facebook a week later, and not from the school itself,’ wrote Jessica Valois.
‘Why has the Mashpee school system not informed us of this situation?’ demanded Corinne Shea.
‘Mashpee has always been one to turn their heads when something is going on, if it looks bad on them then they don’t wanna talk about it,’ added Courtney Negron.
Residents of the small town began to discuss organizing search parties and, as footage of the incident spread many began appealing to Aliyah herself.
Residents of the small town began to discuss organizing search parties and, as footage of the incident spread
‘Aliyah you are loved and cared about by people who have never met you,’ wrote Heather Morel.
‘Please go somewhere safe, message anyone on this thread, we will help you. Our world needs you in it.’
‘My first thought was please let this girl know that life gets better after high school,’ Corine Shea added.
‘What happened to her is messed up and absolutely NO ONE is laughing with those mean girls.’
One of her classmates, Leah Holtz, said that Aliyah had only recently joined the school.
‘She just seems like she was trying to fit in and just trying to make friends with everybody,’ she told WCVB.
‘No student, no person, should ever be harmed in that way,’ she added. ‘I just feel very sick to my stomach because I just want her to be found.’
‘Still not a peep from the school,’ wrote Michael DiMaggio on Tuesday
‘They are promoting Spirit Day? We, as parents of a 6-year-old in this school system are seriously contemplating whether we should keep our child in a school system that lets this happen.’
But a day later two boys visiting Planet Fitness in nearby Barnstable saw a girl they thought they recognized from police missing posters and told the manager.
A 13-year-old girl, who has not been named, is now facing seven counts of assault and battery
He rang police and the missing girl was finally rescued.
‘The town of Mashpee came together for one of its own and again I am happy to report she has been found safe,’ police said.
They also announced that a 13-year-old girl, who they did not identify, is now facing seven counts of assault and battery in Falmouth District Court’s juvenile division.
Mashpee schools superintendent Patricia DeBoer refused to speak to reporters at a school committee meeting that evening.
But news of Aliyah’s rescue has not assuaged the anger of people in the Massachusetts town.
‘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?’ asked Selma Parker. ‘May us parents get some answers?’
‘The schools need to do a better job,’ wrote Matt Bollinder.
‘They are all talk with this stuff and when it comes time to actually protect kids from bullies they turn the other way.’