The Police Tribune | by Sandy Malone | January 6, 2022
Long Island, NY – A Long Island biology teacher could face prison time for injecting a 17-year-old boy with the Covid vaccine at her home without his parents’ authorization (video below).
The Nassau County Police Department said in a press release that the incident occurred at the Summit Avenue home of 54-year-old Laura Russo, a teacher at Herricks High School.
A cell phone video of the incident showed a teenager sitting on a stool at what appeared to be a kitchen counter.
The video showed Russo swabbed the boy’s arm with alcohol before she moved to the end of the counter to prepare the shot.
“Yeah, there you go, at-home vaccine!” another boy declared from off camera. Then Russo joked about giving the boy “a tiny needle,” the video showed.
It appeared in the video as though everyone was aware they were being filmed.
But then the 17 year old featured in the video went home and told his mother that Russo had given him the shot, WABC reported. The boy’s mother called the police and reported what had happened, NBC News reported.
“The mother had not given permission or authority to have her son injected with a Covid vaccine,” Nassau County police said.
Russo was arrested in Sea Cliff on New Year’s Eve, NBC News reported.
“After an investigation was conducted, it was discovered that defendant Laura Parker Russo is not a medical professional or authorized to administer vaccines and was placed under arrest without incident,” the police department’s press release read.
The biology teacher was charged with unauthorized practice of a profession under New York State Education Law, NBC News reported.
Police said she was taken into custody without incident.
If convicted, Russo is facing up to four years in prison, according WABC.
She is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 21, The Washington Post reported.
The Nassau County School District said that Russo had been re-assigned out of the classroom pending the outcome of the case, NBC News reported.
However, the school district stressed that the shot had not been administered on school property and the incident was not tied to the school.
“The individual in question is a district employee who has been removed from the classroom and reassigned pending the outcome of the investigation,” the Nassau County School District said in a statement.
It wasn’t known which vaccine Russo administered to the teen, nor where she obtained it, The Washington Post reported.
Thus far, the Pfizer-BioNTech is the only Covid vaccine approved for people under the age of 18.
Monica Gandhi, an infectious-disease expert at the University of California at San Francisco, said that administering the vaccine takes special training, The Washington Post reported.
Gandhi said the mRNA vaccines need ultra-cold temperatures and specialized handling.
She said it is “quite tricky” to do it properly so the mRNA technology does not break down, according to The Washington Post.
Gandhi said the Pfizer vaccine has to be thawed, mixed with a specific amount of saline for injection, and administered within short timeframe.
“There are very certain specific procedures to administer it. That’s my concern about someone who is not trained giving a vaccine to a person,” the infectious disease expert told The Washington Post.
Source: https://policetribune.com/long-island-teacher-criminally-charged-after-vaccinating-teen/?fbclid=IwAR3eZqIM0l-w8k3IWqGYyO_14eqB32ni3tGReX3eaDWegLXva-TLAMapooc
Here’s the New York Post’s take on this….
Long Island teacher reassigned for illegally vaccinating teen
New York Post | by Parick Reilly | January 4, 2022
The Long Island teacher who was accused of illegally injecting a 17-year-old boy with a COVID-19 vaccine at her home without the teen’s parents’ consent has been reassigned from her classroom duties, according to reports.
Laura Russo, 54, who is not a doctor or authorized to administer 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 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 obtained by the outlet shows Russo preparing the shot for 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 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.