SEE IT: Videos show teen brutally attacked...

By Nina Golgowski
New York Daily News
October 10, 2014

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/videos-show-teen-attacked-christian-boarding-school-workers-article-1.1970458

In one video the teen is seen running down a hall before tackled to the floor. The abuse was unearthed following an investigation into the escape of four teens who similarly complained of abuse.

Former Ambundant Life Academy employees Timothy Jordan, Jovanny Rivera, Carey Honea and Liam Galligan, pleaded guilty to simple assault Thursday.

SEE IT: Videos show teen brutally attacked by Christian boarding school workers — leading to assault, battery convictions

As a 14-year-old boy was viciously pummeled to the ground at a Christian boarding school surrounding witnesses not only turned the other cheek but their eyes as well.

Newly released video from Virginia's Abundant Life Academy in Milford reveals two such brutal scenes which led to the convictions of four former workers who took a plea deal for misdemeanor assault and battery Thursday, WTVR reported.

The three life coaches and a program instructor — identified as Liam Galligan, 44, Jovany Rivera, 22, Timothy Jordan, 26, and William Honea, 49 — had been charged with assault by mob and assault after the video shot in April surfaced.

In one scene the boy is seen being tackled in the academy's sanctuary hall while in another he's flipped on his back from behind while standing in the cafeteria.

A couple yards away at least a dozen people stand by but only fleetingly turn around to catch a glimpse of the violent situation before looking away.

The horrific abuse only surfaced when the same month of its filming four teens escaped from the academy and spilled horror stories to outside deputies, according to the report by WTVR.

An investigation was launched, leading to the four men's arrest and a 12-month suspended sentence on Thursday with a five-year ban for three of the men from teaching at a school with minors.

Galligan, who had served as the interim director at the academy, was prohibited from teaching minors for 10 years.

He still faces 12 counts of child endangerment in connection to claims that he forced teenaged boys to stand in a swamp for extended periods of time.

"One of the four of you could have stopped what occurred, and that's all it would have taken," Judge Gordon Willis told the men in court Thursday, according to The Free Lance-Star. "It amounts to bullying. Four grown adults bullying a 14-year-old boy and you all should be ashamed of yourselves."

Rivera, who was the first to initiate a plea deal which stopped the trial four hours in, suggested to the Lance-Star that the judge's sentence was less than just.

"The judge didn't seem like he was on our side," he said after court. "I don't feel like we are guilty because we had the child's best interest at heart."

A request for comment from Abundant Life Academy, which describes itself as a "Christian Therapeutic Boarding School for Struggling Teens," was not immediately returned Friday.