School dental program pulls child’s teeth without alerting his mother

One Baltimore mother is outraged after her 9-year-old son, Michael, came home with three of his teeth missing.

According to Shanda Flemming, who spoke to WJZ-TV about the matter, her son's school, Beechfield Elementary, performed the procedure as part of a dental program without ever informing her.

"I'm angry about this," she told the local news outlet as her son cried on her shoulder. "I don't think that it should've happened like that."

According to Flemming, Michael not only had to endure the unexpected procedure, for which he was given no pain medication, but he also missed the bus as a result of it and was forced to walk nearly a mile by himself to get home.

"He walked home alone after having three teeth extracted from his mouth. He could have fell out or anything," she said.

According to WJZ, the dental programs became more common following a 2007 incident when a 12-year-old Prince George County boy died from an infected tooth.

The school, for its part, is claiming Flemming signed a waiver at the beginning of the year, permitting the school to perform the procedure. However, the third-grader's mother said she thought the permission slip was only for routine cleanings, not tooth extractions.

"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," the distraught mother said.

Flemming said Michael is scheduled to see their family dentist Monday.