CHICAGO (CBS) All they want is to get home safely from school.

But some students in a South Side neighborhood say the trip just got a little scarier.

A classmate is in critical condition Thursday after being hit in the head with a bat earlier this week. As Dorothy Tucker reports some students think he may have been the victim of mistaken identity and they worry they could be next.

Lewis Gutierrez and his friends head home from Richards Career Academy. The sophomore boys admit the trek home is not an easy one.

"Right now I'm just taking a risk going home," Gutierrez said as he crossed the street outside the school.

"I don't feel safe," added Johset Ruiz, a sophomore at Richards.

There is fear because one of their classmates, a young man whose family does not want him to be identified, was beaten with a baseball bat just three blocks from the school.

Toni Jamison's son was a witness and told her what happened.

"The kid was up there at the bus stop. They jumped out of the car and slammed him in the head with a bat," she said.

The boys say their classmate was a quiet student, and they're convinced he was a victim of mistaken identity.

"People just confuse you with other people, thinking you're involved with gangs, but we are not," Gutierrez said.

Neighbors say there are at least five gangs that fight for control of the Back of the Yards community. Police and parents patrol the school when students leave Richards, but security guards admit -- and students confirm -- that the patrols are mostly limited to the campus.

"They usually patrol around here," Ruiz said. "That probably wouldn't have happened if they were patrolling around the area."

Jeannette Williams is a member of the school's local council.

"We don't know how it happened. We're sorry it happened," she said. "It's something we'll talk about on the council."

The victim is hospitalized at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. According to published reports, his mother says he is in a coma.