Fla. teacher under scrutiny after telling students Tooth Fairy isn't real

At 11-years-old, Julie Schultz still sees her friends lose a tooth or two while in class.

"It was really wiggly and it was about to fall out and he said, I hope the tooth fairy comes," said the young Schultz.

But what she heard from her teacher, Elwood Wells, was quite the surprise. "The teacher was like, well the tooth fairy isn't real, and then he's like, what is it like Santa Claus, and their name is mom and dad," said Schultz.

Mr. Wells says he was trying to console the student and did not realize what he had said. But other kids in the classroom overheard, and after school, Julie went to her father.

"I don't think that he just made a mistake. He was just being a mean-spirited person," said Julie's father Gerald Schultz .

Gerald Schultz contacted both Lehigh Middle School and the Lee County School District, hoping for an apology from Wells and the assurance that it wouldn't happen again. The school district released a statement saying: "The teacher feels very badly about what has transpired and regrets that it has upset one of his students. It was not done intentionally or maliciously."

"I hope teachers won't feel the need to take it upon themselves to discuss things that should clearly be handled at home," said Gerald Schultz.

Julie says she still believes in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. It's her feelings toward her teacher that have changed. "I think of him differently, but that's just my opinion."