Yeah, she had it "off" for the lecture and turned it on during the break, which is when they reached her (in Sweden course lectures are almost always divided into several 45 min blocks, with a break in between each block).
I understand, low powered red laser pointers are difficult to see for people with color blindness. And the high powered laser pointers are legal only in some countries. A long stick just works.
I expect they did spring for it when the room was last remodelled, but since then for sure the batteries have died several times, some lecturer brought it with them to their office by mistake and forgot it there, and the students have stolen it.
The best professors I had in my time in university were the ones who didn't let technology get in the way of effective teaching. The ones who grabbed the newest technology were the ones willing to waste combined days of time (that's a big lecture hall; there could easily be hundreds of students in that class).
I guarantee the university would have let her expense a laser pointer, but those break, run out of batteries, and can be harder to place accurately or spot. Sticks just work.
Like no shit, you try to carry on a lecture while like 20 different journalists try to call you! The youth of today! ;)