A court heard that a teacher who was caught on camera consuming marijuana with high school pupils was dealing with mental health concerns at the time of the infamous event, therefore she was spared jail time.
When Lauren Gabrielle Russell appeared in Sutherland Local Court on Monday, she was accompanied by her husband.
Late last year, Russell entered a plea of guilty to providing drugs to kids at Lucas Heights Community School.
In December 2021, video of the physics instructor and Year 12 advisor smoking from a Gatorade bottle went viral on social media.
Earlier in July, Russell requested that her accusation be handled in accordance with the Mental Health Act, stating that her 2009 diagnosis of bipolar disorder was to blame for her “lack of judgement.”
Bipolar illness is a mental health condition that can lead to manic episodes and produces unusually abrupt changes in mood and energy levels.
Her mental health condition affected her decision-making at the time of the offence, according to many reports from psychiatrists, which Magistrate Philip Stewart noted.
She was mandated to follow a treatment plan with the assistance of mental health professionals even though there was no record of a conviction.
He acknowledged that she sought out medical attention and mental health professionals in the twelve years following her diagnosis, but he called the teacher’s distribution of medications to kids “serious.”
It’s a serious abuse of power, he told the court.
She acknowledges the position of authority she was in and admits that the offence was significant, according to Russell.
Magistrate Stewart also acknowledged that the 42-year-old was under-medicated and experiencing a “hyper-manic” episode when she asked the teenagers if they wanted to use marijuana with her.
The mother earlier stated that she was frequently drinking one bottle of wine per night during the COVID lockdown in 2021, but she now claims that she stopped drinking around the time of the offence.
The magistrate could not determine whether she stopped drinking in November before the offence, in December immediately following the offence, or a month later in January due to contradicting reports regarding the precise period of her sobriety.
The magistrate was asked by her attorney Dev Bhutani to take into consideration a non-custodial sentence with no conviction recorded, even though the maximum punishment for her offence is two years in prison and a fine of up to $5,500.
He claimed Russell could follow a court-mandated treatment programme that included regular sessions with a psychiatrist, abstinence from alcohol and cannabis, and prescription medicine for her ailment.
She is extremely unlikely to commit the same offence again and has good possibilities for rehabilitation, according to Mr. Bhutani, who testified in front of the court.
To prevent the general public from committing similar offences, prosecutors sought the magistrate to register a conviction; however, the request was denied.
The magistrate noted during sentencing that Russell had made progress toward rehabilitation and did not pose a risk of reoffending.
He pointed out that the fact that she won’t be able to teach kids again is a serious punishment in and of itself.
According to previously submitted facts that were agreed upon by the court, Russell phoned a student and asked to “catch up and have a cigarette” before setting up a meet-up for after school at Menai Marketplace.
According to police records, Russell later drove the student and a buddy to a nearby site where she gave the kids cannabis that she had purchased from a former male student, 17, before they took turns smoking through a Gatorade bottle bong.
Court documents stated that Russell then took the two pupils to Menai Skate Park where she claimed to have used marijuana with them there.
Earlier in July, Mr. Bhutani testified in court that there was a passing connection between his client’s bipolar disorder and the distribution of cannabis.
He asserted that Russell was “seriously under-medicated” for her bipolar disorder at the time of the offence and argued that, based on the pathology findings, the “acute mania” episode could have been averted.
According to evaluations from psychiatrists and psychologists, Russell was having a manic episode at the time of the offence, which caused him to act with “lack of judgement.”
Russell reportedly drank frequently while working from home during the four-month COVID lockdown last year but had cut back by the time she was back in the classroom in November.
According to Mr. Bhutani, the four-month period of manic episodes were made worse by a combination of drinking and cannabis use.
Mr. Bhutani argued for the case to be dropped and for Russell’s prior spotless record to be preserved by stating that his client has made “substantial and concrete steps” in her rehabilitation since.
He stated that his client’s work and life would be significantly impacted by a criminal conviction.
According to Bhutani, a Section 14 diversion should not be interpreted as an attempt to dodge or escape punishment but rather as a recognition by the courts that someone who is mentally incompetent should be kept out of the severer parts of the criminal justice system.
In opposition to the application, the police prosecutor argued that a duty of care had been broken.
Although Magistrate Philip Stewart had earlier acknowledged Russell’s dedication to her profession, he questioned how neither her spouse nor her coworkers had noticed her manic behaviour.