A disturbing viral video has ignited outrage both online and in a Chicago community where parents and residents are demanding accountability from local schools and city authorities. In the footage, a woman and her 9-year-old son are ambushed and attacked by a group of walking-home schoolchildren — a scene that is being called nothing short of appalling. (Source: CBS News)

According to local reports, the incident occurred on November 17 when 33-year-old Carshawnda Hatter was escorting her children home from Orville Bright Elementary School in the South Deering neighbourhood on Chicago’s South Side. 
In the video — which has been viewed millions of times on social media — a large group of school-aged children, many wearing backpacks, appear to follow Hatter and her two young children along the sidewalk. They taunt and call names, and one of the assailants seemingly hits Hatter’s son off-camera before the attack escalates into fists, kicks and tackle assaults.

The attack resulted in serious injuries to both Hatter and her 9-year-old son, both of whom were hospitalised.
Hatter later spoke out at a rally held near the school, describing how the group was waiting along the route she normally took, “just to jump all of us.” She even asked her children to switch to the opposite side of the street to avoid the ambush—but it did not deter the attackers. “They followed us all the way there, and they still fought us,” she recounted. 

Dozens of parents and residents have rallied behind her demands for accountability. Some claim the same small group of children had repeatedly been terrorising the neighbourhood—vandalising cars, harassing adults and other children—and that little had been done to hold either the children or their parents responsible. One parent stated: “It’s been an ongoing thing in this community, and the parents don’t take accountability for anything their kids do.”

Illinois State Senator Willie Preston also attended the community rally. He described the video as “horrible… disgusting” and said it was symptomatic of a long-standing failure to hold young attackers and their guardians to account. “We haven’t held these kids accountable. We haven’t held these parents accountable for the violent actions that their children are doing,” he told news crews. 

As of now, the local police have not announced any arrests. The ages of the children involved and the motive behind the attack remain unclear.