A Midlands student was attacked by several classmates while walking home from school last spring, according to police. Her mother said she is still awaiting justice.

Latasha Hicks’ daughter was an outgoing 12-year-old, the youngest of five children and dedicated to all that she did — art, volleyball and especially her schoolwork. Now, she keeps to herself following an incident that her mother and lawyer call “an attack by mob.”

Hicks recently posted a video of the attack on the social media site Nextdoor, publicly pleading with the court.

Hicks’ said that when her daughter was in sixth grade, she would come home and tell her about a male classmate who was mean, who was a “troublemaker.” One day, Hicks said, the classmate took her daughter’s charger and wouldn’t give it back. She had to contact the school, and the school said they’d take care of it.

In May, Hicks said the same classmate took a pair of her glasses, threw them on the ground and broke them. When their teacher overheard them arguing, the teacher asked who broke the glasses, and Hicks’ daughter identified the classmate. Her classmate then called her a “snitch,” Hicks said.

While walking home from Dent Middle School the next day, Hicks’ daughter was attacked by him and a group of other students near the closed Chick-Fil-A on Decker Boulevard, Hicks said.

“He’s known to be like one of the unruly kids, him and his sister,” Hicks said. “They plotted and got their gang together to assault (her).”

Her daughter had scrapes and scratches on her face, and her head was swollen. She suffered from a traumatic brain injury, said Hicks’ lawyer, James Brogdon.

“She was in shock,” Hicks said. “She had no emotion.”

Hicks called the police and an ambulance.

Police were called for an “aggravated assault” involving juveniles on May 16, according to an incident report obtained by The State. The suspect, whose name was redacted from the report, rushed toward Hicks’ daughter and assaulted her by “punching, scratching, pulling, and kicking” her while she was on the ground. An account from the police report said an adult was present, but “only watched the assault.”

The officer asked Hicks if she wanted to press charges.

“Of course,” she said.

When Hicks’ daughter returned to school several days later, she went back to same the class with one of the youths who was part of the attack, Brogdon said, though the school administration and the school resource officer were notified.

“It was disturbing as you can imagine, for a mama and her daughter to have gone through this assault, this beating, and then to show up at school and be back in class with one of the boys who was at the very start of it all,” Brogdon said. “So the school response has been concerning as well.”

Richland 2 contends that because the attack did not happen on school grounds, responsibility for the incident lies in the hands of law enforcement.

“It did not happen on any Richland 2 property. Therefore, the police, not the school district, would handle any charges,” Richland 2 spokesman Greg Turchetta said. “I would direct your questions to the appropriate legal and law enforcement agencies involved.”

Hicks and her lawyer believe differently.

“We obviously disagree with the school’s position,” Brogdon said. “I don’t think that when you entrust your child at school or with school officials, that your expectation is that as soon as your child steps over that boundary line, the school no longer has the responsibility to make sure they’re okay. I don’t think that that’s what we as a society want when we send our kids to school. I don’t think that that’s what the law requires.”

But right now, they are focused on the criminal justice system.

The legal process has been a “slow-moving beast,” Brogdon said, but five have been charged with assault by mob.

“I think it’s been frustrating at times for LaTasha,” Brogdon said. “Her main goal is to make sure that justice is served for her daughter, that these these folks that assaulted her daughter are punished to the extent that … they know what they did was wrong and they don’t do this again.”

The five classmates charged have not received their punishment yet, Brogdon said, and the timeline is unclear. The Youth Advocate Program, an alternative to youth incarceration may be an option, but Hicks and her lawyer are concerned if that will be enough. Brogdon said Hicks’ daughter will likely deal with the emotional and physical fallout from the attack for the rest of her life.

“This is not just a schoolyard fight, let’s be clear about that,” Brogdon said. “These are serious charges, rightfully so. What they did … maybe they’ll move on from it. Latasha and her daughter will not.”