A viral video showing a group of young students attacking a mother and her 9-year-old child is sparking outrage online and in a Chicago community where parents and residents are calling for accountability.
According to WGN, the attack took place on Nov. 17 as 33-year-old Carshawnda Hatter was walking her children home from Orville Bright Elementary School in the South Side of Chicago.
In the footage seen millions of times on social media, a large band of school-aged children wearing backpacks is seen following the mother and her two young children walking on a sidewalk while taunting them and calling them names.
When the group catches up with the family, they surround them and continue ridiculing them. One of the students appears to hit Hatter’s son off-camera before the attack escalates. Then, multiple students start beating Hatter and the boy and tackle them to the ground, where they repeatedly punch and stomp them.
The attack landed Hatter and her 9-year-old son in the hospital with serious injuries. Hatter has sickle cell anemia.
@abc7chicago Chicago police are investigating a brutal attack on a mother and her children near a Far South Side school. #chicago ♬ original sound – abc7chicago
She spoke out about the violence that erupted that afternoon during a rally at Orville Elementary.
“They were literally waiting (along) the way we walk home, just to jump all of us. So I asked my kids to come to the next side of the street with me, so they wouldn’t get jumped,” Hatter told news outlets. “So, we kept walking. They followed us all the way there, and they still fought us.”
Hatter has spoken to Orville school administrators about the brutal attack and said that her son has suffered constant bullying from his peers.
Dozens of parents and community members are backing her demands for accountability, saying that the children who attacked her have terrorized the neighborhood for some time.
“It’s been an ongoing thing in this community, and the parents don’t take accountability for anything their kids do,” one parent said. “If my kids were being messy, I’m going to come out here and let it be known.”
Illinois State Sen. Willie Preston, who was also at the rally, advocated for Hatters and the community’s demands.
“The video was horrible,” Preston told WFLD. “The video was disgusting, and the video was a symptom of something that’s been going on for a long time. We haven’t held these kids accountable. We haven’t held these parents accountable for the violent actions that their children are doing.”
Police say no arrests have been made so far. There’s no word yet on the ages of the assailants, and it’s unclear at this time what the motive for the attack was.
