Oakdale teen who mowed lawns for date money turns away from pot

Cody Mitschelen is a different boy these days – happier, less agitated, his mother says.

The Oakdale High School freshman was thrust into the social media spotlight last month when his work ethic – he was out mowing lawns to raise money to take his girlfriend on a date – impressed a couple of residents. Ryan Cox and Timmy Jaramillo posted a photo and brief account about Cody, which ended up going viral, getting more than 100,000 shares and comments from around the world.

The vast majority were remarks like “Oh my goodness, that is seriously the sweetest thing!” and “Most kids would just ask mom and dad.”

But praise from thousands of people isn’t what has Cody feeling good. In fact, he said he wishes he’d never become an Internet sensation.

Because among all the social media comments was at least one early post saying Cody was a pot smoker. Then a weekly newspaper’s website ran a story saying the teen – it did not name him – may not have been above-board about why he was earning money. It ran a screen shot of an Instagram page, “stoner_money,” that showed video clips and photos of Cody smoking marijuana.

“I wish I never posted the bad stuff on Instagram. … I also wish none of this social media that was posted online, I wish none of that happened, too,” Cody said Thursday, his 15th birthday, while playing video games in the garage of his family’s home.

No, what has the teen feeling better is that before his Internet exposure, he’d begun efforts to kick marijuana, he and his mom, Tina Mitschelen, said.

“He was in a group home for a year, and even on visits, he would come home and I’d find out he smoked and it was, ‘OK, you have to go back now,’ ” Tina Mitschelen said. “When he came home seven months ago, I didn’t think he was (smoking), but I kind of caught (word of) it here and there.”

Two months ago, “I got him into wrap (Wraparound In-Home Early Prevention Services through Aspiranet) services,” she said. “It is an intensive therapy where they come out like five times a week. I have a support counselor, he has a support counselor. I have a counselor, he has a counselor, and then we have once a week ... CFTs (child and family team), and those are where all the counselors and me and Cody get together and talk about the progress.”

And last week, Cody began a 12-week class with the Center for Human Services. “They’re helping me quit and stop smoking, which I already stopped smoking,” he said.

On his birthday, there was even more to celebrate because Cody was drug tested and came up clean, Tina Mitschelen said. That means he hasn’t used pot in at least a month, she said.

While waiting for some friends to come over, Cody was spending his birthday with his mom, siblings, girlfriend Audrey Fierro and her mother.

Audrey, he said (and she confirmed), knew he smoked pot but was OK with it so long as he didn’t try to get her smoking it or smoke it around her. “I never been around her when I was high,” Cody said.

As for why he stopped smoking, the first words out of his mouth were: “For Audrey,” whom he’s been dating more than six months. After a pause, he added, “I stopped because of all the negative stuff backing up.”

Some of that negative stuff included Audrey’s mom being told by another mom about Cody’s marijuana use. Holly Fierro didn’t want to comment for this story, but confirmed Tina Mitschelen’s account of her reaction to the news. “She came to me and said, ‘We need to talk,’ ” Mitschelen said. “She’s telling me, ‘Did you know this?’ I said yes, but he’s in drug counseling. …”

Mitschelen said she totally understands the parental reaction. “You don’t want your kids dating bad.”

Cody may have a long way to go toward recovery, but he said he already feels a lot better. “When I was doing it, I always had to hide it,” he said. “And it’s a lot more stress off my back.”

He’s taken down the Instagram pages, he said, but not before the sting of feeling like the whole world knew he’d been lighting up. “Random people” were making comments that had “bad words in them” on his account, he said.

He said he was sure Audrey wouldn’t want anything to do with him after his pot-smoking past became so public. His mom said he called her, crying, asking Mitschelen to come home so they could talk about how he’d have to break up with Audrey.

The social-media backlash, though nowhere near the level of the praise, hurt mother and child, Tina Mitschelen said. “It’s just like parents think I don’t care. I do, it’s just I’m caring about Cody, not caring about what everybody else is saying. One post was, ‘If he was my kid, I would be ripping people up.’ ... Even if I did post a comment, you know, everybody would be attacking me. I would rather focus on Cody.”

And what about the lawn mowing that drew attention to Cody in the first place? For a while, he has stopped except for mowing the lawns of Cox and Jaramillo, he said.

“Cody, he’s a good kid,” Jaramillo said. Negative comments “really got to him, and I let him know there’s always gonna be people out there who’ll talk down to him. Even the people who said stuff like, ‘What’s the big deal? He mowed a lawn.’ Well, it is a big deal. So many kids don’t do that.

“I’m not saying what Cody was doing was right, especially at his age. I had a long talk with him and he’s learned his lesson. What Cody wants is, he wants to make himself a better person and have a great relationship with Audrey. So far, he’s been doing good.”

This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 5:35 PM with the headline "Oakdale teen who mowed lawns for date money turns away from pot."