SWAMPSCOTT — Judith Hapgood is used to dogs and puppies belonging to parents brushing up against her leg when she's working as a crossing guard at Clarke Elementary School.

But the animal doing just that yesterday at 2 p.m. wasn't a lovable puppy, but a hungry raccoon.

"Next thing I knew, it leapt on my thigh and grabbed hold and started biting, and I started screaming: 'Somebody help! Can somebody help me?!'" Hapgood recounted yesterday. She had just returned home after spending seven hours at Salem Hospital waiting to get a series of shots.

Hapgood shook her leg, but the harder she shook, the tighter the raccoon grabbed on. So she grabbed behind the animal's head and pushed it off.

Determined, the animal charged up again and leapt into the air toward Hapgood.

"I gave him a swift kick — I'm not sure where I got him," Hapgood said. "Meanwhile, the parents came to my rescue. The raccoon took off and went under a car, up a driveway, and into a garage, and the police went and found it and shot it right there on the spot."

Police don't know if the animal was rabid. The raccoon was killed by police Sgt. Rick McCarriston after the typically nocturnal omnivore was found in the backyard of a home across the street from the school, Detective Sgt. Tim Cassidy said.

Regardless, hospital staff began the rabies treatment procedure, a long and painful process. Hapgood received four rabies shots, a tetanus shot and four shots of antibiotics directly into the wound on her leg.

The shots will continue unless test results in Boston show the raccoon didn't have rabies, a deadly disease transmitted through blood and saliva that affects the nervous system.

Hapgood is relieved the raccoon attacked when it did and not minutes later, when hundreds of kids would have been getting out of school.

The school was held in lockdown until the raccoon was put down. Detective Rose Cheever, the school resource officer, was in contact with school officials and Superintendent Matt Malone.

Hapgood has been a crossing guard for five years, the past three at Clarke School.

The doctor ordered Hapgood to stay home today but she plans on returning to work tomorrow.

"I'm still a little shaky, but not nervous. I think it was an isolated incident," she said. "I don't expect to be attacked again."