A Man With Down Syndrome Was Suspended From College After 'Soliciting for Oreos'

"At first, Michelle Tetschner thought the person on the other end of the phone was joking. It was 2023, and the call came from the University of North Florida, where her son Raymond, who has Down syndrome, was enrolled in a life-skills day program. The woman on the line sounded alarmingly serious. Raymond was being suspended, and Tetschner was told she needed to come pick him up immediately."

"The news left her momentarily stunned before she broke into laughter. "It was the word they used that got me first," Tetschner tells TODAY.com. "They said Raymond was 'soliciting for cookies.'" The term - more commonly associated with far more serious offenses - struck her as jarring. Then came the explanation itself. "He was standing by a vending machine asking for Oreos," she says. Even three years later, she can't quite say it without laughing."

Michelle Tetschner's son Raymond, who has Down syndrome, was suspended from a University of North Florida life-skills day program after staff described him as "soliciting for cookies" when he asked for Oreos by a vending machine. Parents received an email about Raymond's frequent lateness without offered strategies or a proposed meeting to address executive-functioning and time-management challenges. The program's response penalized behaviors related to the very skills the program aimed to teach. Down syndrome affects about one in every 700 U.S. births and can influence cognitive development, physical growth, and learning, according to the National Down Syndrome Society. The Tetschners ultimately withdrew Raymond from the program.

Read at TODAY.com