EDITOR’S NOTE: Portions of the attached video may be disturbing to some viewers.
CHICAGO — Parents and community members are outraged after a video that has gone viral on social media shows a mom and her children being attacked by students Monday as they walked home from Orville Bright Elementary School on the city’s Far South Side.
Dozens of people showed up to the school Tuesday morning demanding accountability, some saying they’re shocked but not surprised by Monday’s incident and that the students involved should be expelled.
Carshawnda Hatter, a 33-year-old Chicago mom, and her 9-year-old son were taken to Trinity Hospital in serious condition after the attack. According to Chicago police, the attack unfolded just after 3 p.m. in the 10600 block of South Bensley Avenue, in the South Deering neighborhood.
Officers say the victims were walking along the sidewalk in the area when a group of offenders approached and struck them multiple times.
In video of the incident shared on social media, Hatter and her two children can be seen walking as a group of young students follows and yells at them. The kids crowd around Hatter and her children, and that’s when two of the kids start punching them.
WGN-TV is not showing the entire video since it may be too disturbing for some to watch.
“They were literally waiting (along) the way we walk home, just to jump all of us,” Hatter told media and supporters gathered outside the school Tuesday morning. “So I asked my kids to come to the next side of the street with me, so they wouldn’t get jumped.
“So we kept walking. They followed us all the way. … And then they fought my son and hit my son first. … Then they dragged me in the grass.”
Hatter and her family had a meeting Tuesday morning with school administrators about the incident. Police escorted Hatter into the school, and a sea of vocal supporters gathered around her.
Hatter said this isn’t the first time her child has been bullied at the school, but she’s hoping it’ll be the last.
“I’m trying to get justice for my son,” she said.
To which one supporter replied, “And you deserve it.”
And Hatter isn’t the only Orville Bright Elementary School parent fighting for their child. Those who stood outside the school Tuesday say some students have been terrorizing the community.
“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.”
WGN-TV has reached out to Chicago Public Schools for comment and is awaiting a response.
Currently, police say it’s unclear what led to the attack Monday, and authorities say no arrests have been made.