They may not be able to read, write, or do arithmetic. But they will be toothless.
Another reason for School Choice!
Nine-year-old Michael Flemming came home from school last week with three of his teeth missing. Not because he’d gotten into a fight, but because his public school’s dental program had removed them.
His mother was not happy.
I’m angry about this,” Shanda Flemming told WJZ. I don’t think that it should have happened like that,” says Flemming.
Baltimore City Schools is claiming that Flemming signed a permission slip, but Flemming says that she thought the school’s dental program was just going to clean her son’s teeth, not pull them.
Michael came home in terrible pain, crying from the procedure. It also caused him to miss the bus, and he had to walk all the way home.
Flemming told WJZ that her son was scheduled to visit the family’s dentist the following week.
“I just don’t understand how a school or a company can take it in their hands to do something like this to a child,” says Flemming.
Never heard of schools maintaining dental departments? Me neither. But apparently a kid died of an infected tooth in Prince George’s County, Maryland, in 2007—and ever since, Maryland schools have prioritized dental wellness. This does not seem like the best justification for putting public schools in the teeth-inspecton business, but okay.
Even so, it’s crazy that the school thought it could remove Flemming’s teeth without even calling his mom first. The school is not the parent.
This is the kind of insanity that unfolds when schools face no competition—and are free to disrespect students’ and parents’ rights. Incidents like Michael’s ordeal are the best case for school choice: parents should have more control over how their kids are treated in the education system.