A teen accepted to 20 colleges offering him full financial aid wants journalists at a Fox affiliate to apologize for calling his decision to apply to the schools "obnoxious."
An anchor and contributor on Fox 5 in Washington, D.C., criticized Micheal Brown's decision to apply to 20 colleges in a segment airing April 3.
Co-anchor Holly Morris and contributor Sarah Fraser called applying to that amount of schools "ridiculous."
"It's a little ridiculous that this kid applied to 20 taking away a spot and basically waitlisting another kid," Fraser said on the show.
"I think it's a little obnoxious because you can only go to one," Morris commented. “You can only take one full ride and you are taking a spot from someone else who worked really hard.”
Two days later, Micheal said he had a "respectful" interview with Morris, but he will not allow the segment to air until the station issues a public apology. "Where's the #humandecency?" he tweeted.
Micheal's mother Berthinia Rutledge-Brown told USA TODAY that Morris never apologized and instead said "I didn't mean to offend you." They didn't receive an apology from the station either, she said. Fox 5 did not immediately return a request for comment from USA TODAY.
Micheal, a black student who grew up in a poor area of Houston, defied odds with a 4.68 GPA at Lamar High School. Last week, a widely-shared video showed his enthusiastic reaction to being accepted into his dream school: Stanford University. He got a full ride. Spoiler: There was jumping. There was screaming. It was pure joy for all involved — including his mom.
It didn't stop there. Brown was accepted into and received full financial aid for 19 other colleges, including more Ivy League schools: Harvard University, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Northwestern University, Georgetown University, Vanderbilt University, Johns Hopkins University, Pomona College, Claremont McKenna College, Williams College, University of Texas-Austin, University of California-Berkeley, Amherst, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Tulane University, University of Michigan, UC-Davis and UC-Irvine.
Rutledge-Brown said her son is currently deciding between Georgetown, Stanford, Harvard and Yale. He plans to announce his decision April 30.