A Long Island teacher was arrested for illegally injecting a 17-year-old boy with a COVID-19 vaccine at her home without the teen’s parental consent. She has now been reassigned from her classroom duties, according to reports.
54-year-old Laura Russo who is not a doctor, nurse or authorized to administer any vaccines, was arrested for the New Year’s Eve incident at her Sea Cliff home, according to Nassau County police.
Russo is a science teacher with Herricks Public Schools in New Hyde Park, according to the district’s website. She has been taken out of the classroom as the criminal investigation proceeds.
“The individual in question is a district employee who has been removed from the classroom and reassigned pending the outcome of the investigation,” the district said in a statement to NBC 4.
School district officials declined to comment further, saying the alleged criminal injection did not take place on school property.
Authorities said that Russo had a vial of approved COVID-19 vaccine in her home, although it is not clear where she got it, NBC 4 reported.
Russo’s son had a friend over who asked her for the vaccine because his mother did not want him to get it, officials said. Police were notified after the teen left Russo’s home and told his mother about the jab, according to cops.
Video shows Russo preparing the shot to the teen, whose face has been blurred out.
“There you go, at home vaccine,” the teen sitting in a chair says in the video while a woman wipes his arm.
The video is captioned with “never been so uncomfy in his life.”
According to NBC 4, the woman appears to give the teenager a shot of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is only approved for Americans 18 years or older.
Russo was charged with unauthorized practice of a profession under New York State Education Law and released on a desk appearance ticket.
She is due to appear in court on Jan. 21, police said.
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