I was asked to leave the daycare classroom

[mowilli3]

Mamas,

I am so mad right now. I was sitting in my DD's classroom at my DC's daycare center watching her play with a friend and nursing my DS who is 20MO. We have nursed in the class before going home for months with no complaint. Today, a teacher went to the assistant director to complain and she assistant director came into the room and asked me to move to her office. I stopped DD nursing and took my kids outside. I have always been discreet. I was sitting in the back of the room and lifted my t-shirt from the bottom. I was covered. This teacher is new and she doesn't like me because I told her that she wasn't being polite to a little girl when she demanded the child put away a book that the teacher had just read.

I want to know my rights. The center is in DC. They do not have a designated area for moms to nurse, even for the infants. The only areas in the building that are not visible to a live camera are the bathrooms. I refuse to go there to nurse. I want to tell the Director the rights of nursing women if we have the right to NIP in the classrooms while we watch our children. If I'm wrong, please let me know. I don't want to offend people, but I am always discreet.

Thanks,
Mo

[Chandar]

How frustrating for you mama! You were legally in the right. Here is DC's new law.

D.C. Code Ann. § 2-1402.81 et seq. provides that a woman shall have the right to breastfeed her child in any location, public or private, where she has the right to be with her child. The law also specifies that an employer shall provide reasonable daily unpaid break periods, as required by the employee, so that the employee may express breast milk for her child. These break periods shall run concurrently with any break periods that may already be provided to the employee. Requires that an employer make reasonable efforts to provide a sanitary room or other location, other than a bathroom or toilet stall, where an employee can express her breast milk in privacy and security. The location may include a childcare facility in close proximity to the employee's work location.

Please contact www.FirstRight.org and fill out a report.

[white_queen_22]

:-( I'm so sorry you had to deal with this. When I was harrassed after the birth of my son I felt SO awful. Even though I KNEW I wasn't doing anything wrong.

I hope you show back up tomorrow with a print out of the state law and sit down and nurse again just like always. If they choose to say something just hand them the law and say, "I am well within my legal rights and would prefer for this discriminatory harassment to cease. Thank you." and go back to nursing your baby/talking to your friend. :-)

Angela <><

[zensven42]

Whoa! Slow down there. There may be a law that states you can breastfeed anywhere you are allowed to be but there is no enforcement provision. What this means is that the law is somewhat powerless in that you could still be legally arrested for trespassing if you were asked to leave, and did not.

This IS a shame, but there are different ways of dealing with this. You could hand them the law and just hope they take it at face value and leave you alone. You could speak or write to whoever is the head of the daycare (director, owner, etc) and try to educate them on why NIP should be perfectly acceptable anywhere. You could have parents who use the daycare sign a petition that nursing on the childcare grounds should be acceptable and allowed. You could just stay there and nurse, let them arrest you, and sue on the grounds that they infringed on your civil rights. The last one would be tough and should probably be reserved for when other options fail. Of course if everyone started doing that, hmmm........

If you would like some help, you could fill out the breastfeeding discrimination form at firstright.org and ask for someone to contact you for assistance.

Good luck and keep up the good fight!

[mamajake]

Originally Posted by zensven42

Whoa! Slow down there. There may be a law that states you can breastfeed anywhere you are allowed to be but there is no enforcement provision. What this means is that the law is somewhat powerless in that you could still be legally arrested for trespassing if you were asked to leave, and did not.

D.C.'s public breastfeeding law is fairly new but is part of its discrimination law so appears to have an enforcement mechanism. :


"Chapter 14. Human Rights. (Refs & Annos)

Unit A. Human Rights Law.

Subchapter III. Procedures. (Refs & Annos)

>>§ 2-1403.04. Filing of complaints and mediation.



(a) Any person or organization, whether or not an aggrieved party, may file with the Office a complaint of a violation of the provisions of this chapter, including a complaint of general discrimination, unrelated to a specific person or instance. The complaint shall state the name and address of the person alleged to have committed the violation, hereinafter called the respondent, and shall set forth the substance thereof, and such other information as may be required by the Office. The Director, sua sponte, may investigate individual instances and patterns of conduct prohibited by the provisions of this chapter and may initiate complaints in connection therewith. Any complaint under this chapter shall be filed with the Office within 1 year of the occurrence of the unlawful discriminatory practice, or the discovery thereof, except as may be modified in accordance with § 2-1403.03."

Further on it appears injunctive relief and/or a private right of action is available.

HTH.

[zensven42]

oh wow! Their law is brand new and does have a way to file complaints to actually enforce the law. That is fabulous!
I hearby stand corrected.

So, you may show the law to all of them and complain if they still give you problems. I wish all the breastfeeding laws were like that in some way-

Let us know how this turns out please. I am interested in how effective the law is.

Good luck to you!

[mowilli3]

Thank you for helping me with this, mamas. I'm going to try to explain it to the Director. I don't want to be antagonistic, but I think it's important to protect my rights and the rights of all the other nursing moms. We have asked for dedicated space, but we haven't gotten it yet. Plus, there is no reason to hide nursing. The other children love to see it. It's the ignorant adults with the problem. I'm getting angry again.