RESERVE — As St. John Sheriff’s Deputy Anthony Ealy recently saw a young boy crying, he said something in his soul told him to hug the boy.

Ealy, the resource officer at the St. John Alternative School, was in a meeting last month with the teenage boy, a juvenile probation officer, juvenile detective, family services representative and the troubled youth’s mother.

“The kid was having drug problems,” Ealy said. “I began to talk to the kid and try to give him tough love, then the kid started to break down and I knew something wasn’t right with him. He had a dead stare at everybody and was almost emotionless. I felt the spirit of God say ‘embrace him.’”

It was then that Ealy said the boy became frantic.

“The only thing that I knew what to do, from what I went through and from my training, was to grab and embrace that kid,” he said. “I held him and let him know that I loved him and let him know it was OK. I began to pray for him and he laid there in my arms, almost like a baby, and I encouraged his mother to embrace him, as well.”

Before he knew what was going on, Ealy said everyone in the room, including himself, was crying.

The young boy admitted he contemplated suicide, adding he just wanted to give up.

“I told him that isn’t the way to go,” Ealy said. “I remember being at that stage one point in time. As a police officer, I try not to forget where I came from. I want to be able to reach back and snatch somebody else out of the fire and that’s what I did with that kid.”

Ealy, who has worked for the Sheriff’s Office for four years, said officers rarely volunteer to work at St. John Alternative School because of many of students’ troubled backgrounds.

For Ealy, that is why he asked to serve there.

“You deal with kids from the age of 10 years old to 19, and they are mostly the troubled kids with IEPs, behavioral disorders or on house arrest,” he said.

“I thought if I could catch the kids at this stage, in school, maybe I can deter a lot of the crime that’s on the street.”

For his dedication, Ealy was recognized in June as the St. John Business Association and Sheriff Mike Tregre as the Officer of the Month.

“We are not trained psychiatrists are physiologists,” Tregre said.

“Deputy Ealy provided his time and support and gave that kid a big old hug. He tried to show that kid that his life mattered. He has no specialized training; he just did his job and from what I understand, everything is going much better.”

Tregre said it makes him feel great to know he has officers who take the time to make an impact in someone’s life.

“(Ealy) could have walked away,” Tregre said.

“He could have turned his back, but he did a tremendous job.”