Former New York Teacher Sentenced to Community Service for Illegally Vaccinating Teen

A vial of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine sits at a vaccination clinic in Los Angeles, Calif., on Dec. 15, 2021. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

The former New York teacher who was accused of illegally injecting her son’s 17-year-old friend with a COVID-19 vaccine on New Year’s Eve has avoided jail time, according to reports.

Laura Russo, then a science teacher at Herricks High School, was arrested on Jan. 1 at her Sea Cliff home, where the illegal injection took place. Nassau County police said they were notified after the boy left Russo’s home and told his mother what had happened.

“The mother had not given permission or authority to have her son injected with a COVID vaccine,” the police said at that time.

Russo, who is not a doctor or authorized to administer vaccines, was charged with unauthorized practice of a profession under New York State’s education law, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison for a first-time offender.

Almost a year after the incident, Russo was able to avoid serving jail time by reaching a plea deal with Nassau County, reported Newsday.

As part of the deal, Russo on Dec. 16 pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of attempted unauthorized practice of medicine and a disorderly conduct violation, in exchange for prosecutors dropping the felony charge of unauthorized practice of medicine.

The misdemeanor conviction, according to the Long Island newspaper, comes with a year-long interim probation during which Russo must complete 100 hours of community service, mandatory therapy sessions on a two-week basis, and a no-contact order with her victim. Prosecutors will remove the misdemeanor charge if she fulfills all the requirements of probation.

The punishment was decided “based on the defendant’s long-standing ties to the community and her lack of a criminal record,” a spokesman for Nassau County District Attorney’s Office said.

Illegal Injection Caught on Camera

In a video circulated on TikTok, Russo can be seen preparing the jab for the boy, whose mother reportedly did not want him to get it. The video is captioned, “never been so uncomfy in his life.”

“There you go, at-home vaccine,” the boy, sitting at a table, says in the video while Russo wipes his arm. The vaccine dose is of the Johnson and Johnson brand, which has so far only been authorized by the federal government for use in adults.

Russo later told Newsday that she got the vaccine dose at a local pharmacy while getting her son a booster shot.

She said she asked the pharmacist for an empty vial to hang on her Christmas tree as an ornament. Instead, she said, the pharmacist gave her a vial that contained four extra doses that were supposed to be discarded.

“Clearly, I should not have administered the J&J vaccine to anyone when I returned home with the vial containing four viable doses, but my son’s friend said he was not vaccinated and wanted to be vaccinated,” Russo said in the statement to the newspaper.

“I thought he was 18, and I did not know that the J&J vaccination had not been approved for persons under 18,” she added. “What I did was an egregious lapse of judgment that I deeply regret, but I did it to help a young man not to harm him.”

The victim’s mother, Lisa Doyle, said she has known Russo for 20 years and was conflicted about the case’s outcome.

“Do I think she needs required jail time? I’m very mixed on that one,” Doyle told Newsday. “But I’m glad it’s over.”

Russo had been teaching at Herricks Public Schools for 25 years until she was reassigned from her classroom duties in the wake of her arrest. The school board eventually voted to fire her, saying that they weren’t comfortable putting someone who lacked care about safety procedures back in charge of a science class.