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A New Jersey high school teacher used her body as a shield to protect a student who was being jumped by five other teens, saving him from further injury.
Cathy Hurley, a 56-year-old special educator at William Shemin Midtown Community School in Bayonne, was caught on video throwing herself over the victim as he was unconscious and in the fetal position to stop the barrage of blows from the attackers.
One of the teens got in one more kick to the victim’s head before the pack made a run for it.
Hurley’s daughter, Frankie Sielski, told NBC New York she had watched the viral clip multiple times before she realized the woman acting as a human shield was her own mother.
“I was truly in shock because of how vicious the attack is,” the teacher’s daughter said. “I Facetimed her immediately. Her eyes were welled up with tears, I said ‘Are you OK?’ She said something very bad happened.”
An 18-year-old male and four juveniles allegedly involved in the brutal fight have all been charged with aggravated assault, the outlet reported.
Sielski told NJ.com that the victim was taken to the hospital with serious injuries, though the specificities of those injuries are unclear.
“Thank God she got on top of him because there was no end in sight. Her on her feet was doing nothing,” the daughter said of her mom’s heroic actions. “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.”
Fortunately, Hurley remained uninjured.
“My mom said ‘I don’t know why they didn‘t kick me.’ She was like, ’Why did they stop?’ Her thought process was like ‘these kids don’t even know I am in here.’ So she just decided to lay on the kid,” Sielski added.
The special education teacher told her daughter, “I did what anybody would have done.”
Sielski responded, “There was a crowd of people. No one else did anything!”
In a letter sent to school staff Thursday, administration commended Hurley.
“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, obtained by NJ.com, said.
“Her dedication to our students, her motherly instincts and her Hudson County fearlessness tie for a close second to her kind and compassionate heart,” officials added.
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Retired teacher here, you are more than qualified for many different jobs, especially if you’re organized and know how to use Microsoft office or google forms (pretty sure you’re familiar with those because of Covid). You would make a great office manager for any firm, big or small or an assistant manager at any chain company, whether it’s a grocery store, department store, or a restaurant. You’ve got a bachelor’s degree that shows you know how to show up and have the “stick with it” and you know how to be in charge of events and motivate people to do what you need them to do. You may have to identify what motivates adults but the basic concepts are the same. Maybe you know some parents of former students that would be willing to give you a chance in one of those areas.