A Chicago mother is still shaken after a brutal after-school ambush left both her and her nine-year-old son hospitalized — an attack captured on video that has since ricocheted across the internet.

Corshawnda Hatter, 33, was walking with her son and young daughter near Orville T. Bright Elementary on Chicago’s Far South Side when a group of students descended on them. The footage, now viral, shows her son clinging desperately to her waist as several kids punch, kick, and shove the family across a patch of grass. It’s chaotic, disorienting, and unmistakably violent.

“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,” Hatter later told reporters. “They followed us all the way there. They hit my son first, dragged me in the grass, and pulled my baby’s hair. I’m trying to get justice for my son.”

According to the Chicago Police Department, officers responded just after 3 p.m. on Monday. A 33-year-old woman and a nine-year-old boy — both unnamed by police, as is standard — were found with injuries consistent with the attack seen in the video. Both were transported to a local hospital in “serious condition.” As of Wednesday, no arrests have been made.

The video ignited immediate public backlash. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said he was “deeply disturbed” after watching the footage, insisting the city “must not normalize that type of senseless violence.”

But for Hatter, the fallout has been far more personal. Her daughter watched everything. Her son’s screams replay in her mind. And the fear hasn’t faded.

“I can’t sleep,” she said. “I wake up in the middle of the night with that vision in my head — my son calling my name to help him, and I couldn’t do nothing for him. That really hurt me the most.”

On Tuesday, community members gathered outside Bright Elementary to demand action — from the school, from the city, and from law enforcement. Residents say the incident reflects a deeper climate of unchecked bullying at the school, something Hatter echoed during the rally.

Illinois State Senator Willie Preston said the attack — carried out by children against a mother in her own neighborhood — reveals a devastating breakdown in public safety. “No mother should be that helpless and be targeted by children inside her own community,” he said.

Chicago Public Schools released a statement saying officials were “horrified” by the attack and are working with police to support the family.