On Wednesday, Andrea Scannell was given the letter from a school’s principal asking her to cover up while breastfeeding.
Scannell and her family were attending a school lunch program at Mount Logan Middle School located in Logan, Utah, when the incident occurred.
“One of the workers approached me with a sealed envelope and said, ‘I highly encourage you to read this’ and I said, ‘Is this because of the breast feeding?’and she said, ‘Just read it, it’s very tastefully written’ and I was like, ‘You know this is illegal right?’ and she said, ‘Just read it’ and then she left.” Scannell told Fox13 News.
Some excerpts from the note:
“The concern is with the exposed breastfeeding of your baby.”
“As a public school, we have children of all ages attending the lunch program. We also have numerous adults who share a wide variety of personal views and views on raising their own children.”
“While I understand the importance of a baby being breast-fed, I would hope you would also use discretion in exposure, while the baby is fed.”
With protective laws in place in most states, but very few with enforcement provisions, Scannell is hoping to bring attention to an ongoing problem in the US:
“This kind of shaming, this kind of bullying, it prevents other breastfeeding women from going out in public, from feeding their baby,” she said.
This Thursday, in a show of support, several mothers came to the school to breastfeed their babies.
Logan School District Superintendent Marshall Garrett had this to say about the incident:
“It was brought to the attention of the principal who felt that, at least, an initial dialogue with the individual mother would probably be good,” he then wanted to be clear that he felt breastfeeding at the school was fine, but added that the district needs to find, “a balance between an individual’s rights, which she has that right, and the ability to have others feel comfortable around her.”
