A South Side mother is receiving an outpouring of support after her children were attacked by middle-school-aged students on Monday, November 17th. The incident quickly went viral on social media and sparked widespread outrage across Chicago’s South Side.
According to the mother, Corshawnda Hatter, 33, she was walking to the store with her 9-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter after school when a group of students began calling her son names.
The situation escalated within seconds, and Hatter and her children were physically attacked around the 10600 block of South Bensley Avenue, just a few blocks from Orville Bright Elementary School, located at 10740 S. Calhoun Avenue on Chicago’s far South Side.
As the video spread online, residents across the South Side came together demanding solutions and asking how they could support Hatter and her children.
In response to the overwhelming outreach, Hatter launched a GoFundMe campaign on Wednesday, and by Thursday afternoon, donations had surged past $18,000 as the community rallied around her family.
A Pattern of Harassment That Escalated
Before Monday’s attack, the mother says her family had already been living through months of escalating harassment that moved from the school into their home and daily life.
In her Facebook post, she described how everything began with bullying in the classroom, but soon spilled out into the neighborhood and eventually right up to her front door.
She wrote that the same group of kids who tormented her children at school would come to her building and throw bricks at the windows, including the window to her children’s room. They kicked at her doors, hurled objects at her windows, and pulled her mail from the mailbox only to burn it. Even after management relocated her to a new unit, she said the group found where they moved and continued the harassment there, flattening her children’s bikes and damaging her son’s electric scooter.
“Right now, I’m working [on] counseling for my two children,” Hatter shared in a Facebook post. “My kids wake out of their sleep at least four times a night crying and screaming my name. I really want to get my kids some help.”
The GoFundMe, titled “Support a Family Recovering from Violence,” has already raised more than $18,000 — over 75% its goal — in just a short time. Donations came from across Chicago and beyond, with many expressing heartbreak over what the children endured.
“I just want him to feel safe going to school and walking in his own neighborhood,” Hatter shared on her GoFundMe page.
