A Maryland mother says she is still in disbelief after she and her daughters were brutally attacked by a group of students—an incident strikingly similar to a recent Chicago ambush that went viral and sparked national outrage.
Just days after reports of a pregnant Chicago mother and her 9-year-old son being swarmed and beaten by schoolchildren, another family has stepped forward with an almost identical story—this time in Cambridge, Maryland.
They dragged me across the field by my hair
Lakesha Graves says the attack began when a group of students boarded a school bus that wasn’t theirs and immediately confronted her daughter. What happened next, she says, was chaos.
“Then a 12-year-old rushes me, and her friends follow right behind her,” Graves told WMDT. “The boy punches my daughter in her face twice. And from there, you see them dragging me across the field by my hair…”
Video of the aftermath has circulated locally, with parents expressing disbelief that children so young were capable of such aggression.
Graves, like many parents watching these incidents pile up, says the moment left her shaken—not just by the violence, but by the audacity.
“I was flabbergasted that children would even approach an adult, let alone assault them,” she said. “I was not expecting that in any way, shape, or form.”
A Community Confronting Escalating Youth Violence
Following the attack, Graves met with Cambridge Police Chief Justin Todd and Dorchester County Schools Superintendent Dr. Jymil Thompson. She says her priority now is understanding how this level of violence was even possible—and how to prevent it from happening again.
Chief Todd didn’t mince words when describing what his department has been witnessing.
“We’ve seen juveniles escalate from assaults to vehicle thefts, to robberies and homicides,” he said. “We’ve seen it right here in our local community. And I think we’re going to continue to see it unless there’s a real change.”
Four of the children involved were referred to Juvenile Services. Others were simply too young to qualify.
That detail—children being “too young” to face consequences—is fueling frustration among Maryland parents who feel the juvenile system is not built for the moment.
Another Mother, Another City, Same Story
The Maryland attack comes on the heels of a Chicago incident that stunned the nation after footage showed a mob of schoolchildren surrounding, taunting, and beating 33-year-old Carshawnda Hatter and her 9-year-old son as they walked home from school.
Hatter said her son had been targeted for weeks and that school administrators knew.
“It’s been an ongoing thing,” she said. “And the parents don’t take accountability.”
Illinois State Senator Willie Preston called the attack “horrible” and “a symptom of something that’s been going on for a long time.”
Taken together, the Chicago and Cambridge cases point to a troubling national trend: groups of youth acting with a level of brazenness once rarely seen at such young ages.
Their safety has to come first.
Graves says she’s no longer willing to wait for institutional reforms. She has pulled her daughters out of school.
“I’m waiting for change,” she said. “But until then, my daughters’ safety has to come first.”
The Dorchester County school system says it is reviewing the incident. Cambridge Police continue to investigate.
What remains unclear is why these packs of children are organizing and carrying out violent attacks—and what tools communities actually have to stop them.
For parents like Graves, one thing is certain: the problem is no longer isolated. It’s happening in too many places, to too many families, and the victims are sounding the alarm.
