A group of students with special needs were denied service at the Cracker Barrel in Maryland. The mother of an autistic boy expressed outrage after the restaurant manager told them not to come back.

Stacey Campbell said her nonverbal son Jojo, 9, was denied sit-down service at the Waldorf restaurant on Tuesday along with 10 other children with special needs.

Jojo was traveling with his school’s Community Based Instruction (CBI) program, which gives children with special needs the opportunity to go on field trips and participate in educational activities.

According to an email from a teacher, the children and the seven adults with them were denied service at Cracker Barrel despite calling ahead to confirm they did not need a reservation.

The email said the decision had nothing to do with the children’s behavior and that the manager had told the group not to return on future field trips.

“So if you tell them to take us off the list, then they are not welcome there. Why?’ Campbell told WJLA.

The restaurant only allowed the group to place a take-out order and left students sitting in the back of the eatery, where they waited for more than an hour, the teacher’s email said.

“We brought the food back to school and the students enjoyed their lunch and were so well behaved,” it said.

“However, I am disappointed by this experience and still stunned that this happened in a public setting.”

The email also noted that Cracker Barrel employees were very rude to the group.

The concerned mother shared the letter on social media to raise awareness of the situation, sparking hundreds of reactions.

“I posted it to raise awareness. And even more so for my community of moms and dads who have children who can’t speak for themselves — who can’t advocate for themselves,” she told WJLA.

“These types of trips are extremely beneficial for her, or specifically for him, because it gives them the opportunity to explore the area without all the white noise and sensory overload.”

Charles County Schools Superintendent Maria Navarro defended her staff and the children and shared a public statement of her own.

In the letter, she said that Cracker Barrel was told before the group arrived that the goal of the program was for children to “practice generalization skills learned in the classroom” before the group arrived.

“Our students and staff are our number one priority, and we are disheartened to learn of the alleged treatment they received while participating in an activity designed to teach our students through real-world applications,” Navarro wrote

Cracker Barrel attributed the students’ experience to a staffing issue.

In a statement, a company representative said, “A staffing issue resulted in the closure of part of our second dining room that day, causing confusion that impacted the group’s experience.”

But Campbell and the other parents involved are still skeptical.

“I don’t buy the excuses they make,” she told WJLA. “I, for one, and my family will not spend a dime supporting this establishment.”

The principal revealed that the student group has been contacted by other restaurants and businesses that would like to host their group.