Mother hits out at school for asking her not to breastfeed in busy playground
A furious mother has hit out at her daughter’s school after she was asked to stop breastfeeding in a busy playground.
Theresa Phillips filmed the altercation with assistant principal Matt Gromek after she visited Kiva Elementary School in Tempe, Arizona, last week to help her daughter celebrate winning a star student award.
The clip begins with Gromek and a female colleague asking Phillips who she is as she feeds her nine week-old baby son in the playground.
Phillips says that moments before she started filming, another teacher walked past and said ‘Is that even allowed in public?’
Gromek offers Phillips the option of feeding in a different room ‘to have some privacy.’
Why has Darcey Bussell quit Strictly Come Dancing 2019?Phillips replies: ‘I don’t need privacy,’ only for Gromek to tell her ‘I would prefer that.’
Gromek continues to ask Phillips to chat with him in a different room, prompting her to respond ‘I’m uncomfortable with you right now.”
She then tells him that she’s going to find her daughter, and continue her ‘authorized visit,’ while Gromek continues to try to chat with her.
Phillips concludes the video by highlighting Arizona law, which states it is legal for a woman to breastfeed anywhere in public without being subjected to indecency laws.
She says: ‘I am feeding my child, it’s completely legal in a public environment.
‘You are making a huge mistake. You should apologize right now.’
Phillips continues: ‘I am so upset right now.
‘All of these children’s lives right now are being disrupted, because you personally are uncomfortable.’
The mother says the went back to the school three days later, and accused Principal Alice Spingola of following her around in an ‘unfriendly’ manner.
Kiva Elementary has since issued a statement saying that they respected Phillips’ right to breastfeed, but that they took issue with her for sharing a video featuring other children on social media without permission.
Phillips is now planning a ‘nurse-in’ to protest on behalf of breastfeeding mothers.