A New York teacher is facing charges for allegedly vaccinating a 17-year-old boy against COVID-19 without his parents’ consent.
The teacher, Laura Russo, who worked at Herricks High School, reportedly inoculated the boy on New Year’s Eve inside her home. She is not a doctor, nor is she medically authorized to administer vaccines, police said.
Footage of the incident shows Russo preparing to administer the vaccine to the teenager, whose face is blurred out. A caption of the video reads, “Never been so uncomfy in his life.”
“There you go, at home vaccine”. Police have arrested a Long Island mother for illegally giving a 17 year old boy a shot of Covid vaccine in her home. And there’s video….Only on @NBCNewYork #nbc4ny pic.twitter.com/KpG5vAQaDT
— Pei-Sze Cheng (@PeiSzeCheng4NY) January 3, 2022
In the video, Russo appears to be giving the 17-year-old the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. However, this vaccine has not been approved for those under 18-years-old. The only COVID-19 vaccine approved for those under 18 is the Pfizer-BioNTech shot.
The boy told his mother about the jab, and she then called the police, according to police records.
Russo was charged with unauthorized practice of a profession and released on a desk appearance ticket. She is due to appear in court on Jan. 21.
Herricks Public Schools Superintendent Fino Celano said Russo was suspended from the classroom and will be “reassigned pending the outcome of an investigation.”
Stories of teachers vaccinating students without their parental permission are becoming more common. A mother in Los Angeles reported a similar incident last month, saying her son’s teacher bribed him with pizza to get the COVID-19 shot and then instructed him not to tell his parents.
The educator who gave the boy the shot allegedly told him, “Please don’t say anything. I don’t want to get in trouble.”
