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Breastfeeding Mom Ejected From Courthouse  

post #1 of 38
Thread Starter 
In my own backyard, no less. I've bolded the really irritating parts.

P.S. This is my first post and I haven't had time to set up a .sig, etc. Sorry.

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http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dw....ba22460e.html

Breastfeeding mom ejected from courthouse

12:57 AM CDT on Saturday, July 28, 2007

By DAN RONAN / WFAA-TV

McKINNEY — Collin County officials say they're investigating why an Allen mother was told she could not breastfeed her newborn baby in a public building.

Elydia Arthur said she was humiliated when two female employees called security and began shouting at her to leave.

It was Thursday, and the mother of three was at the Collin County Courts and Probation building in McKinney with her 10-day-old son, Noah.

Arthur said she received permission to go into an office to nurse the baby. Minutes later, the two women employees confronted her.

"They were like standing in the doorway and they told me I needed to go to the bathroom to feed my baby," Arthur said. "They said, 'You know what? If you don't get up, we'll call security.'"

But that's not what Texas and federal law says:

• "A mother is entitled to breastfeed her baby in any location in which the mother is authorized to be."

Officers arrived at the court building. Rather than having a confrontation while holding her newborn son and with her other two children, Arthur left the premises.

"As soon as I got to the car, I actually started crying," she said. "My husband was like, 'What's wrong?' And I told him what happened."

Collin County officials did not want to go on camera to discuss what happened, but Bob Hughes, director of the Community Supervision and Corrections Department, issued this statement:

"We try to treat all mothers with dignity. Most people don't know the law. We'll let our people know about it. It's an unfortunate incident."

Arthur said she is discouraged by what happened this week, but she pledged to continue nursing.

"I think it's the most natural thing in the world," she said. "We shouldn't have to hide in a closet to feed your child. Should women with bottles go hide in the closet with their bottles?"

Elynda Arthur says she wants someone from Collin County to acknowledge that its employees were wrong. She said she'll settle for an apology.
post #2 of 38
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMommyBlawger View Post
Collin County officials did not want to go on camera to discuss what happened, but Bob Hughes, director of the Community Supervision and Corrections Department, issued this statement:

"We try to treat all mothers with dignity. Most people don't know the law. We'll let our people know about it. It's an unfortunate incident."

Arthur said she is discouraged by what happened this week, but she pledged to continue nursing.

"I think it's the most natural thing in the world," she said. "We shouldn't have to hide in a closet to feed your child. Should women with bottles go hide in the closet with their bottles?"

Elynda Arthur says she wants someone from Collin County to acknowledge that its employees were wrong. She said she'll settle for an apology.
This is totally outrageous! That it happened at a courthouse is : ! You would think that those that work where the law has to be upheld would know the law. It's laughable that we employ Ignorant ba****** who are given the authority to exercise their stupidity!

I hope you ask the Collin County Courthouse Officials or Bob Hughes, the director of the Community Supervision and Corrections Department to have those stellar employees apologize in person to you. Maybe a little crow in their diet will prevent this from happening to another law abiding breastfeeding mamma.
post #3 of 38
:

But you know what? I think it's great that the mom made the comments about bf'ing being natural and how women shouldn't have to hide to feed their babies. Maybe that will help some women in the community who read it to see that NIP is perfectly acceptable, and should be encouraged.
post #4 of 38
Quote:
Originally Posted by red17 View Post

I hope you ask the Collin County Courthouse Officials or Bob Hughes, the director of the Community Supervision and Corrections Department to have those stellar employees apologize in person to you. Maybe a little crow in their diet will prevent this from happening to another law abiding breastfeeding mamma.
I'm not clear that the OP is the mom this happened to.
post #5 of 38
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMommyBlawger View Post
"Most people don't know the law."
Assuming he was quoted accurately, that's a pretty lame defense considering this is a courthouse!
post #6 of 38
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMommyBlawger View Post
In my own backyard, no less. I've bolded the really irritating parts.

P.S. This is my first post and I haven't had time to set up a .sig, etc. Sorry.

====

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dw....ba22460e.html

Breastfeeding mom ejected from courthouse

12:57 AM CDT on Saturday, July 28, 2007

By DAN RONAN / WFAA-TV

McKINNEY — Collin County officials say they're investigating why an Allen mother was told she could not breastfeed her newborn baby in a public building.

Elydia Arthur said she was humiliated when two female employees called security and began shouting at her to leave.

It was Thursday, and the mother of three was at the Collin County Courts and Probation building in McKinney with her 10-day-old son, Noah.

Arthur said she received permission to go into an office to nurse the baby. Minutes later, the two women employees confronted her.

"They were like standing in the doorway and they told me I needed to go to the bathroom to feed my baby," Arthur said. "They said, 'You know what? If you don't get up, we'll call security.'"

But that's not what Texas and federal law says:

• "A mother is entitled to breastfeed her baby in any location in which the mother is authorized to be."

Officers arrived at the court building. Rather than having a confrontation while holding her newborn son and with her other two children, Arthur left the premises.

"As soon as I got to the car, I actually started crying," she said. "My husband was like, 'What's wrong?' And I told him what happened."

Collin County officials did not want to go on camera to discuss what happened, but Bob Hughes, director of the Community Supervision and Corrections Department, issued this statement:

"We try to treat all mothers with dignity. Most people don't know the law. We'll let our people know about it. It's an unfortunate incident."

Arthur said she is discouraged by what happened this week, but she pledged to continue nursing.

"I think it's the most natural thing in the world," she said. "We shouldn't have to hide in a closet to feed your child. Should women with bottles go hide in the closet with their bottles?"

Elynda Arthur says she wants someone from Collin County to acknowledge that its employees were wrong. She said she'll settle for an apology.
OMG that poor woman!! When my DS was a few months old I had to go to court with my xhusband and I fed him in the office with the mediator while we wrote papers and in the hall where you wait to go into the courtroom without even a glance (that I noticed)
I hope the educate their court officers
post #7 of 38
The ironey of the location is almost overwhelming! :
post #8 of 38
I was once told to stop nursing in court. It was a bailiff (the only other female in the court) who got on my case. She told me I couldn't nurse in court. She got in my face about it! I smugly told her that anywhere I was authorized to be, I was also authorized to feed my baby. She got mad, turning all different shades of red and purple, and she stomped over to the judge to complain about me. The judge looked at her without expression and told her to knock it off and leave me be.
post #9 of 38
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Momtwice View Post
I'm not clear that the OP is the mom this happened to.
No, it's a news article and not about me. Otherwise, I would have given you the first-person scoop.

I have BF outside a courtroom where I was appearing as an attorney. But you are not supposed to bring children into a courtroom, ever, without special permission. It would have been fine for the bailiff to ask the PP to take the baby out of the courtroom. But not to stop breastfeeding. The baby is not "authorized to be" in the courtroom, but as long as the judge was ok with the baby being there, the baby could breastfeed there. Get it?
post #10 of 38
What a horrible thing to have happened.
I was able to successfully breastfeed without any incident in court when we went to an adoption. I breastfed right in front of the judge and the other employees (in a fairly obvious way) and everyone just smiled at me.
post #11 of 38
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMommyBlawger View Post
No, it's a news article and not about me. Otherwise, I would have given you the first-person scoop.

I have BF outside a courtroom where I was appearing as an attorney. But you are not supposed to bring children into a courtroom, ever, without special permission. It would have been fine for the bailiff to ask the PP to take the baby out of the courtroom. But not to stop breastfeeding. The baby is not "authorized to be" in the courtroom, but as long as the judge was ok with the baby being there, the baby could breastfeed there. Get it?
Yeah, I had gotten special permission ahead of time.
post #12 of 38
The great irony here is that if a private citizen breaks the law, well, "ignorance of the law is no excuse." Yet the director of the Community Supervision and Corrections Dept. said, "most people don't know the law" to excuse the actions of public employees.

As a resident of the Great State, this latest episode doesn't surprise me at all.

Holly
post #13 of 38
Wow, I always feel so terrible when things like this happen. And why does it seem so often to be women attacking moms who are just trying to feed their babies? You'd think there would be some sort of womanly understanding there, of the need to provide for an infant.

And the poor baby only 10 days old? What was she supposed to do, tell him he should wait until they got home?

AARGH!
post #14 of 38
I live about 45 minutes from McKinney. It doesn't surprise me that this happened.
post #15 of 38
This saddens me...and the excuse...ugh...
post #16 of 38
The good news here, unlike other incidents in Texas, is the court administrator seems to be acknowledging that a law was broken and describes the incident as unfortunate. She could very well get an apology and a breastfeeding policy out of this. I know it seems lame, but in Texas the public breastfeeding law is routinely ignored.

Unlike a store, where "authorization" to be in the space can easily be revoked, administrators of a state courthouse are going to be hard pressed to find a reason why a breastfeeding woman's authorization to be in the halls should be revoked.
post #17 of 38
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chimpmandee View Post
And why does it seem so often to be women attacking moms who are just trying to feed their babies? You'd think there would be some sort of womanly understanding there, of the need to provide for an infant. AARGH!
This is what gets me too. WHY does the sight of a women feeding her child freak these women out!?! Geez...
post #18 of 38
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by lara1828 View Post
This is what gets me too. WHY does the sight of a women feeding her child freak these women out!?! Geez...
Read the article again. She was not breastfeeding "in public". No one could see her feed her child. She was breastfeeding in an office, which she had permission to use. Presumably with the door closed. From the way the story reads, they *came into* the office and asked her to BF someplace else.
post #19 of 38
Quote:
Originally Posted by a_work_in_progress View Post
I was once told to stop nursing in court. It was a bailiff (the only other female in the court) who got on my case. She told me I couldn't nurse in court. She got in my face about it! I smugly told her that anywhere I was authorized to be, I was also authorized to feed my baby. She got mad, turning all different shades of red and purple, and she stomped over to the judge to complain about me. The judge looked at her without expression and told her to knock it off and leave me be.


You go, girl! When/where did this happen? And what did the bailiff do after the judge told her to leave you alone?
post #20 of 38
I was once scheduled to try a case when, after waiting three hours, the judge said he was breaking for lunch. I told him I needed at least two hours because I had to go home and nurse my son. The judge told me to bring my son back with me and then gave me the key to his chambers to nurse in. In the afternoon, after I had brought my son back with me and had used the judge's chambers to nurse, the judge told me how hard his wife had tried to nurse their kids and how sad she was that she had had no support in learning how to do it. It was very cool. And odd, since he was a mean nasty judge with a bad rep. But he seemed to have sort of a soft spot for me after that. Go figure.
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