LaKandra Hargro said she’s afraid to send her children back toschool when it starts because there’s no way to ensure their safetyagainst a pack of other teens who entered her home and attacked herson, leaving him at the University of Mississippi Medical Centerwith a brain bleed.

“They broke in the window in the door and reached in and unlockedthe door, and my son went and hid and they pulled him from underthe bed and started hitting on him,” she said.

They hit her son, 14, with a beer bottle, she said, and he wastaken away by ambulance, and sent from King’s Daughters MedicalCenter to UMC with bleeding in his brain. That was when a witnessstepped forward and named all the boys in the attack.

That was three months ago. Since then, they have allegedlyterrorized her sons by phone and broken bottles on her porch.

There were at least four of them, Hargro said, and they will facethe judge in youth court today.

“I feel like now we’re getting somewhere,” she said. “I feel likeas far as feeling safe in my home, my sons feel OK now, but my14-year-old has just started sleeping again. Now if he hears anoise he jumps.”

Brookhaven Police Chief Pap Henderson said in a case like Hargro’s,often a victim can file charges if police do not have the immediateinformation available. And sometimes when juveniles are involved ina crime, he said, lags in the system make it harder to seeimmediate results.

“The charges have all been filed in youth court weeks ago, but theyonly meet once a month, and we filed those charges,” he said. “It’snot like going to city court every week.”

Henderson said parents need to be aware of what their children aredoing, because police are not just on the streets to round upjuveniles and keep them out of trouble.

“The charges against the boys that did the damage to (Hargro’s)house and her son, a police officer (filed the charges),” he said.”But I don’t know what to tell these parents, we’re beingbabysitters and mothers and fathers. They don’t understand thatwe’re trying to prevent other, bigger things from happening at thesame time we’re babysitting.”

Hargro agrees that something has to be done by parents whosechildren and teens are getting into trouble. She said the fact thatsomeone could break into her home and attack her son in the middleof the day is indicative of a bigger problem.

“Something as violent as what happened, this is something where hebroke into a home and attacked two children, he could have killedmy child,” she said. “He attacked him and it’s broad daylight.They’re bold, they’re really bold. And where are theirparents?”

Meanwhile, she said she’s working on teaching her own childrenvaluable life lessons.

“My 14-year-old, he’s all like, ‘I’m going to get them before theycan get me,’ and I don’t raise my children like that,” she said. “Itell them to let go and let God. Now with this happening, I’mhaving to try to talk to my son and get him to understand noteveryone is like this, but you do have to be aware ofpeople.”

And Henderson said in the meantime that his officers are doingeverything they can to keep the streets safe, but there are flawsin the system that can cause trouble for everyone.

“Don’t blame the police about where the parents are at,” he said.”I can’t make youth court meet more than once a month.”