Georgia school rules that breastfeeding at school is not allowed.

[Can Dance]

yep.  seriously.

We need to write some serious letters ladies. and maybe someone who is calm and rational and able to see past seeing red about this could write a nice forum letter that we all use??  anyone?

link:

http://www.walb.com/story/14470710/school-borad-rules-on-breastfeeding?redirected=true#

[foreverinbluejeans]

Georgia Code 31-1-9

"A mother may breast-feed her baby in any location where the mother and baby are otherwise authorized to be."

[Can Dance]

yeah this ruling is illegal.  I am trying to find the superintendents email address, I really stink at google!

[annettemarie]

Wow. That's just dreadful.

[treeoflife3]

It sounds like the ban is specifically about whether or not people can bring their babies to school.  Since the law only protects breastfeeding wherever mother AND baby are otherwise allowed to be, it doesn't break that law by saying babies aren't allowed to be there.  Maybe I'm misunderstanding the article since it doesn't even specify what kind of school we are talking about.  Depending on the school, I can see why they'd want a policy to not allow bringing babies to work.  I can see how having a baby in say, a middle school class, could be disruptive.

[annettemarie]

If it's about bringing babies to school, though, why specifically spell out "no breastfeeding?" Why not say "no bringing babies to school"? And I assumed it was a public school since it mentioned a superintendent, school board,and school district,

[treeoflife3]

I agree, it seems silly to say 'no breastfeeding' if what they mean is 'don't bring your baby to work' because then it brings up the issue of whether or not parents of students can nurse their babies while visiting and THAT would be illegal to ban.  I think maybe the only reason they framed it as no nursing is because the need for a policy came up after a teacher asked if she could?  It is still silly when they could just say 'no, because we don't want your children at work' though.  I'm happy they are still making sure teachers can still pump though, and I assume teen mothers at the high schools.  That would also be illegal, to not allow pumping.
 

Originally Posted by annettemarie 

If it's about bringing babies to school, though, why specifically spell out "no breastfeeding?" Why not say "no bringing babies to school"? And I assumed it was a public school since it mentioned a superintendent, school board,and school district,

[annettemarie]

I just don't see how it's possibly legal or even enforceable. What about parents picking up kids? Moms who bring a baby to a parent-teacher conference? People who pay for a ticket at a theater production or a sporting event? You can't flat-out ban babies and if you can't ban babies, you can't ban breastfeeding.

[weliveintheforest]

"The school board unanimously approved a policy Monday night that prohibits breast feeding by employees and students."

The article seemed pretty clear to me, that it is banning teachers and students from breastfeeding at school, not visiting parents of students.  It's still a stupid rule... it would be one thing to say you can't breastfeed during class, or bring kids to work with you, but what you do on breaks should be your business, especially when it is something that babies should have a right to!

[Drummer's Wife]

Originally Posted by weliveintheforest 

"The school board unanimously approved a policy Monday night that prohibits breast feeding by employees and students."

The article seemed pretty clear to me, that it is banning teachers and students from breastfeeding at school, not visiting parents of students.  It's still a stupid rule... it would be one thing to say you can't breastfeed during class, or bring kids to work with you, but what you do on breaks should be your business, especially when it is something that babies should have a right to!

That makes sense (that it's not all babies brought on the premises - just banning students enrolled and staff who works there).  However, it does seem silly b/c if it's on a lunch hour or break, I don't see the harm in allowing babies to nurse.  I totally understand not wanting babies in the classroom - bottle or breastfed - so I wonder if they had issues with employees/students not following that rule, and the fact that they were breastfeeding was brought up as reasoning why the babies had to be there? 

It's like the thread we had about a college banning breastfeeding - except that it wasn't really even discriminating against nursing mothers, rather they were trying to avoid having students bring babies into class.  When the argument was, "but I'm nursing, so my baby needs me", that was the angle the rule makers chose to take. 

Hopefully they would at least allow breastfeeding in vehicles on their property - sheesh - 'cause that's what I guess would have to happen if say, a SAHD brought the 6-week old baby to mom's work/school during her lunch hour. 

[annettemarie]

Well, in that thread the prof never mentioned breastfeeding, just no babies in class and people extrapolated "ZOMGOSH, he's anti-breastfeeding!!!!" This rule is pretty much explicitly anti-breastfeeding. It's pretty clear that it's the breastfeeding they take issue with since they specifically spelled it out. I have no problem with no babies in class.

[milkcake]

http://www.dougherty.k12.ga.us/superintendent/superintendent.htm

Superintendent of Schools

Office: School Administration Building, 200 Pine Ave.
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]

What I find confusing is the opposition to BF AT the school yet the policy dictates that they set up places specifically for mothers to pump? This really only makes sense if they have a daycare on premises but it mentioned taking the expressed milk home.

"We just want to make sure that education in schools is designed for it's supposed to be."

Wait, what?

Am I the only one finding this entire story just odd?

[Katie LeDoux]

A scientific study was conducted about breastfeeding mothers and returning to work, and which way was best to continue breastfeeding.  Please read the full thing here: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/122/Supplement_2/S56.full

Here are the conclusions of the study

"CONCLUSIONS. Feeding the infant from the breast during the work day is the most effective strategy for combining breastfeeding and work. Ways to enable direct feeding include on-site child care, telecommuting, keeping the infant at work, allowing the mother to leave work to go to the infant, and having the infant brought to the work site. Establishing ways for mothers to feed from the breast after return to work is important to meet US breastfeeding goals."