A New Jersey teacher used her body as a human shield to protect a student who was being savagely beaten by a group of teens.
Cathy Hurley, 56, didn’t think twice when she saw the youngster being battered by a group of five thugs outside a Bayonne school earlier this week.
The special education teacher escaped uninjured, unlike the teen who was knocked unconscious during the violence.
Educarray McGhie, 18, and four minors aged 15 to 17 have been charged with aggravated assault after the boy was left needing hospital treatment.
‘I was truly in shock because of how vicious the attack is,’ Hurley’s daughter Frankie Sielski told NBC.
A New Jersey teacher used her body as a human shield to protect a student who was being savagely beaten by a group of teens
Cathy Hurley was credited with saving the teen’s life after she put her own safety at risk to help him
She lay over the boy as he was assaulted by five other youths who police have charged with aggravated assault
‘I Facetimed her immediately. Her eyes were welled up with tears, I said ‘Are you OK?’ She said something very bad happened.’
The shocking video shows the youths kicking and stomping on the teen has he lays defenseless on the ground.
Hurley is seen dropping to the ground and using her body to cover him until the blows subside.
‘Thank God she got on top of him because there was no end in sight,’ Sielski added.
‘I know her thought process was just getting it to stop, and she kept saying ‘We called the cops, we called the cops,’ and the kids wouldn’t stop.
‘She just needed to get them to stop so that’s what her body did. There was no thought behind it.’
The attack occurred next to at William Shemin Midtown Community School, although the alleged perpetrators attend nearby Bayonne High School.
In a letter to the school staff obtained by the Jersey Post, the Shemin school administration commended Hurley’s ‘fearlessness.’
‘She was the only adult to enter the situation, trying to pull the attacker off the victim and finally laying on top of the student, to use her body as a shield,’ the letter said.
Hurley’s daughter Frankie Sielski said she viewed the horrific video several times before realizing it was her mom protecting the boy
The attack took place earlier this week outside William Shemin Midtown Community School
Hurley was praised as ‘fearless’ in a letter from the Wiliam Shemin school administration
‘Her dedication to our students, her motherly instincts and her Hudson County fearlessness tie for a close second to her kind and compassionate heart.’
Bayonne School District superintendent John Niesz added that Hurley embodies what the citizens of Bayonne are all about.
