Miami-Dade teachers want breastfeeding rights

[alp227]

On high school teacher Monica Howell’s first day back to work from maternity leave, she went to her assistant principal with a request: a private place and 20 minutes a day to pump breast milk for her newborn.

Her boss’s response?

“Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate breastfeeding mothers,” Howell recalled.

“I was devastated,” she said.

That launched the new mom on a journey through school board policy and federal law only to come to an unhappy conclusion: Miami-Dade teachers — 80 percent of whom are women — have no right to express milk while at work.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article2182632.html

[littlemissmartypants]

1. ..

Oh, NOW she's gone and done it! Next they won't have a right to breasts.

J/K

Props to her for wanting to make a difference.

~Lmsp

[msongs]

2. that's what her lunch break is for - personal business nt

[WinkyDink]

10. Have you seen teachers' "lounges"? No privacy. Mine had the lunch tables next to the LAV doors!

[Ilsa]

3. I've met teachers who've been able to do it, but only

During their 30 minute lunch break. Teachers have almost no time to themselves during the day.

[Yupster]

7. This was the first thing I noticed when I quit teaching 25 years ago

A person comes by my office and asks to go to lunch and I put down my work and go.

The 10 years I taught I had to carefully plan out my bathroom breaks and mailing a letter was a race.

[brewens]

4. i worked with one woman who was a difficult as humanly possible every step of the way

where her pregnancy and return after her maternity leave was concerned. It was intentional and she didn't last much longer either. She had to game everything!

The doctors appointments were the dead giveaway. Another woman had made her baby appointments on her day off all along for the most part. This woman had every one of hers in mornings on days she was normally scheduled to work. When called on it, she was defensive. Something like, "I'm going in when I'm told I need to for my baby!" As if anyone would be asking her to not see the doctor regurly as needed. She was playing it to make sure and get to use a few hours of her sick leave every time.

Could it have been possible for her to pump and eat lunch sometimes without getting a seperate 20 minute break at her convenience? I'd say so. When we take our lunches is pretty fexible. On busy days, there were a few time she could have I'm sure. If she wanted to.

[MissMarple]

8. This is not a cogent response.

Some people are difficult to work with, yes, but, this isn't a factory, it's a school. Doctor's appointments don't always coincide with school days and their hours. Yes, some people can create a lot of drama, but a school should be able to create flexibility because they are, or should be, about people and making things work. This should be a matter of policy, a humane policy. Eliminate the need for all the drama. 20 minutes of "free time", that is ridiculous.

I was a teacher, and this is untenable, as in not to be tolerated. This isn't the 19th century.

[marym625]

5. I have never had a child so I don't know

Is there a reason this couldn't be done during a normal break? If she isn't actually breath feeding the baby, I am just trying to understand.

I have nothing against the right to breastfeed. If there is a valid reason for the extra time, then shame on the school. But if it's just so she doesn't have to use her break for that, I don't see the problem.

I am seriously asking. Truly don't know

[vanlassie]

6. A lactating breast needs to have milk removed at regular

intervals or else it gets the message to stop producing.

[marym625]

15. Thank you! n/t

[WinkyDink]

11. You are unfamiliar with the way schools, and "breaks," are set up.

[marym625]

16. Not true

But thanks for your emphatic statement.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

9. Access to a private place sounds eminently reasonable, and extra 20 minutes a day off less so.

I can imagining that rescheduling a school day to arrange cover for a teacher while they take an extra 20 minutes a day off could place a lot of pressure on other staff, and I'm not convinced it's fair to do that.

But arranging access to somewhere appropriate in, for example, her lunch break, does not sound like much to ask.

[WinkyDink]

12. There are NO "private places" in schools! My h.s. had exactly 3 toilets for 40 teachers*; one

was IN THE HALLWAY NEXT TO STUDENT LOCKERS, with no ante-room! You opened the door, and there was the toilet!

The remaining two were in the "Faculty Lounge," with the lunch tables right next to the doors!

The staff totaled approx. 40, all trying to use the bathroom at the same in-between-class times and 30-minute-including-last-out-first-back-stand-in-line-with-the-students lunch.

ANY other extra space was for book storage.

*There were 2 other toilets: one for the TWO guidance counselors, and one for the TWO administrators.

[vanlassie]

13. Any school which ostensibly exists to teach... Is at odds with its own purpose if it makes it

necessary for babies to be fed a food which can not support optimal brain growth. We are a stupid people on this subject. We shoot ourselves in the foot when we fail to promote optimal development of our offspring. And yes, I know some can't and some weren't, etc.
Underpinning every argument on this subject assumes that there is an acceptable substitute or... that mothers should not work until children wean. The former is scientifically false, and the latter would be nice but unfortunately is largely impossible anymore.

[phylny]

14. When I managed our clinic, I told breastfeeding mothers to

block off time on their schedules for pumping. I was a young mother once, too, but most importantly, I wanted to retain them for the future.

[tammywammy]

17. That's awful.

Though I don't work at a school, we have special rooms set up for lactating mothers to use.

[malaise]

18. There is no other species that asks permission to feed its young

If there are men and women who cannot tolerate women feeding their young, they are the ones who should disappear.

I am so sick of this ridiculous outrage. Sometimes I wonder if the baby feeding corporations aren't part of this problem. How dare you feed your young with natural food when we are addicted to profits.

Take out your breasts and feed your babies women - fuck those who object.
I can't wait for the day when a million women march and take out their breasts and feed their young.

I don't post on breast feeding threads as a rule because women really don't need anybody's permission to feed a hungry infant.

Get up Stand up!! Stand up for your rights!!

[vanlassie]

19. Malaise, don't wonder. Yes, corporations are a part of the

problem. Somewhere I have a link to an article with a photo of Nestle's social media command center. In the words of the immortal Bartcop: "What wouldn't evil men do to steal billions?"

[malaise]

20. Women need to know that

the breast is best. Fugg those who object.

[vanlassie]

21. It turns out that advertising "special" additives can convince poorly educated women and their

families that breast is ideal, but nobody manages the ideal diet, and so they really do think it's smart to hedge bets and at least do both. Not realizing they are able to produce milk which is vastly superior to any man made product. Human milk is teeming with living cells. Responsive to baby's environment. Formula is dead, cooked. Hard to explain to many.