Heroic moment a New Jersey teacher breaks up a gruesome fight by using her body as a shield

A New Jersey teacher used her body as a human shield to protect a student who was being brutally beaten by a group of teenagers.

Cathy Hurley, 56, didn’t think twice when she saw the youngster being assaulted by a group of five thugs outside a Bayonne school earlier this week.

The special education teacher escaped unharmed, unlike the teenager 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 required hospital treatment.

“I was really in shock because of how vicious the attack is,” Hurley’s daughter Frankie Sielski said NBC.

Cathy Hurley was credited with saving the teen’s life after risking her own safety to help him

She lay over the boy as he was attacked by five other youths charged by police with aggravated assault

‘I immediately FaceTimed her. Her eyes were filled with tears, I said, “Are you okay?” She said something really bad had happened.”

The shocking video shows the youths kicking and stomping the teenager as he lies defenseless on the ground.

Hurley falls to the ground and uses 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 just made it stop, and she kept saying, ‘We called the police, we called the police,’ and the kids wouldn’t stop.

“She just had to make them stop, so her body did that. There was no thought behind it.’

The attack took place next to William Shemin Midtown Community School, although the alleged perpetrators attend nearby Bayonne High School.

In a letter to school staff obtained by the Jersey Postthe Shemin school board praised Hurley’s “fearlessness.”

“She was the only adult who entered the situation, attempting to pull the attacker off the victim and ultimately laying on top of the student, using her body as a shield,” the letter said.

Hurley’s daughter Frankie Sielski said she watched the gruesome video several times before realizing it was her mother protecting the boy

The attack happened outside William Shemin Midtown Community School earlier this week

Hurley was praised as “fearless” in a letter from the Wiliam Shemin school board

“Her dedication to our students, her maternal instincts and her fearlessness in Hudson County are closely aligned with her kind and compassionate heart.”

Bayonne School District Superintendent John Niesz added that Hurley embodies what Bayonne residents are all about.