Hi Ladies
I thought you would be interested in this.
A teen mom who attends her local public high school is not being allowed time to pump her breast milk. This is a HUGE deal and makes me SO angry! She is trying to be a good mother by finishing high school AND wants to give her child the best food she can.
Here is the article...(I tried to write emails to the school officials but they shut off their Facebook and emails bc of all the people like me who are beyond upset)
Re: Teen Mom Denied Right to Breast Feed
DS2 August 2012
It was on a local radio station:
https://www.delaware1059.com/blog/post.php?postid=54
And what full story do you need? She has a son, she wants to pump milk. The law states that must be accommodated, end of story.
We can always count on EllaHella to do the research legwork! ..Insert smiling emoticon here..
Thanks!
DS2 August 2012
Yep.
This is my siggy. Love it.
That's my thought too but in the very limited amount that I've read on this, I've yet to see any statement from the school. The school has no case IMO.
DS2 August 2012
I don't know because we haven't heard the school's side of the story. Did they originally let and find out that she was in a private room doing something else? Did she insist on missing part of every class in order to "pump" Who knows what the reasoning is, but I like to hear both sides before I rush to judgment.
The 3 seconds to google. I didn't pull up the interview on the radio station nor can I hear it on my computer. Can you link me to any local newspapers etc. besides the "mommatramua" blog which have covered it?
and I'm not saying that they have a leg to stand on--I simply don't know.
agreed.
Labor laws don't, but public accommodation laws do. If she is allowed in school which is a building that serves the public, she is allowed to nurse or pump in that school.
Ah we give "recess" all the way through high school. We had a 15 minute break in the AM and PM. Which is not a ton of time to pump but 7 hour school days with a 45 minute lunch in the middle would have been all I needed.
This makes me stabby
Found this statement from the school doctor I think: https://spartansuper.blogspot.com/
But lunch no? Students don't get a lunch?
My BFP Chart
Sorry your school sucked. Kids took the 15 minutes for smoke breaks.
Oh wait no My school sucked more. I'm sad that my kid might have to end up going there.
So it sounds like this is school blog spot. I'm not sure who the poster is (I didn't read it carefully enough), but it would seem from this post that she has the ability to breast pump at school--as long as she brings a cooler and a pump.
I however wasn't sure about the last paragraph which MAY seem to indicate that she would have to change schools (i don't know if Camden is a different school), but that may just be if she wants to have her baby with her throughout the day.
ETA: looks like it was posted by the superintendent
I teach at a high school in Canada. There are no scheduled breaks between classes. Teachers generally expect 5 min travel time. But students certainly have a break for lunch which could be after 2.5 hrs or 4 hrs depending on their schedule.
My BFP Chart
https://spartansuper.blogspot.com/
Statement from that blog:
"Due to privacy regulations we cannot comment on the specifics of a 15 year old student that has received a lot of media attention. But, should a student ask to pump breast milk at school, this is what our response would be.
Lake Forest High School has many female staff members who have personal experience with breast feeding their own children and managing that goal after returning to work. They are wonderful resources for teen moms wishing to do the same. We encourage any teen mom to seek their advice.
We have no specially designed room for that purpose but we would do our best to accommodate that student?s request. The student would be responsible for providing her own cooler for storage. Any refrigerators in school are in use for other purposes. To use them to also store a student?s pumped breast milk would risk contamination.
Our teen moms have access to the DAPI program in Camden which is specifically designed to support pregnant teens. There they can take their classes, take their baby with them, breast feed and pump whenever necessary. A student who chooses to leave that environment and return to regular school also chooses to leave behind a certain level of support"
No. She should not have to change f*cking schools because of this.
Reasonable accommodation is not that hard. They have nowhere she can pump? So they have no lactation room for staff?
I don't get why anyone is defending this.
It's not clear from the blog post that she has to change schools. They don't say that, in fact it specifically states that AT LAKE FOREST they would accommodate her.
I think, the level of support she loses is being able to bring her baby with her and having an environment designed for students with babies who are finishing school while being moms.
Amen, sister.
preach it sister !
This....and that's what happens when you only know one side of the story. Granted, since the school has THREE different locations for teen moms it could be they were caught off guard at her not wanting to go into an environment where it revolves around her condition (such as she can even bring her child in). Granted, I wouldn't want to change school either (and it may just have taken the school a moment to catch up with this, especially if she was expecting the exact same level given at the other locations)
Of course it is going to be all her fault. No way the school would ever be unreasonable with a snap decision, "No, we've never done that, so we don't do that." The snarkiness of the superintendent's blog post suggests to me that he is feeling defensive. Because she wants to go to a normal school, she is giving up support. Really?
Let's just put scarlet letters on all the teen moms. You made your bed, now go lay in it. Unless you do it this way, we won't support you.
How can the school backpedal? They haven't made any statements except the statements that we have seen/heard second hand from the student and the mom.
We have NO idea what her demands were, we have NO idea what was said.
As far as keeping it in a refrigerator at the school--we weren't allowed to do this with our school lunches? Really how hard is it to through a couple of ice packs in and keep it in her locker? This is what I did at work (exchange desk drawer for locker).
ETA: and maybe his post was "snarky" because he got 5 million emails/calls etc. without anyone knowing what the full story was. So yeah if I had to reexplain every five mins what actually took place vs. what someone said took place I might be a little snarky too.
Actually, I understand where the school district is coming from in saying that a student who chooses not to attend the specialized school for teen mothers is going to lose a certain amount of support. They're not saying that she cannot pump at Lake Forest. They're just saying that if she were attending the specialized school that they've provided for teen mothers (which is not something that all school districts have) then she's going to lose a certain level of support.
Most schools do not have a lactation room for staff because teachers typically have a private classroom with a door that locks. As a teacher, I've seen many breastfeeding mothers be successful at pumping during the school day. They have a do not disturb sign they put on their classroom door and then they lock the door, so as to stay more private.
Just as a separate statement:
Let's not forget that a school district does not have to provide accomodations for a teem mom. I am glad that there are school districts that do provide accomodations (my own child attends the school district's daycare, along with several student babies), but it's not something that used to be or has to be provided. I feel that, in some ways, these accomodations have made it more popular to have a baby in high school. When you make things easy, you make things more popular. I wouldn't want to take the accomodations away from the teen moms, but I can't help but wonder if making it so easy makes it more tempting.
I hear this argument, but at the same time I am surprisingly pro-breastfeeding.
Not knowing the whole story (a blog is not a reliable source) I would say that the mom should be able to figure out pumping during the school day. Feed/pump before school; pump at lunch, leave 10 minutes early from a class if need be to pump once or even twice a day. Cooler in the locker for the milk and presto.
Teen mom maybe needs to know that it is not going to be easy and that the world does not have to make every accomodation, but bending a bit for a while on a case by case basis might be the best course of action.
Our school was 25 minutes for lunch and we had 3 minutes to get from class to class, no breaks otherwise.
I do think that any school, regardless of their "support" for teen mothers, should make accomodations for a breastfeeding teen who needs to pump. I believe it would fall into the same category as any other medical need.
Actually, not having accommodations makes it more likely a teen mom will drop out. I don't think it makes it more tempting, just more likely for them to stay in school.
Yes, asking for a place to pump is "every demand."