Posted on 04/15/2016 5:25:44 AM PDT by simpson96
Stephanie Rhodus was in court on Monday to testify in a custody hearing for her 8-year-old son. She was waiting to be called to the stand when her younger son, 8-month-old Archer, wanted to be fed. She was nursing him when judge Peter Knight called her up, and all was okay for about five minutes.
Then Knight can be heard saying this in an audio recording: "Ma’am, you need to cover up. For you not to realize that is absolutely ridiculous. Step outside, and cover up right now. Stand up, and go, now." He went on to say that having a child in the courtroom is allowed but nursing is "absolutely inappropriate." Rhodus apologized and tried to continue. Unsurprisingly, her son was fussy and agitated during the remainder of her testimony.
She told the Washington Post that her son won't take a bottle and he also doesn't like being covered when nursing. But the law in North Carolina says this is all fine: Women can breast-feed in any public or private place they're allowed to be, without covering up.
Rhodus knows this (she breast-fed in the presence of a woman judge last week) but she told ABC News that the judge was "so condescending and so aggressive" that she was too scared to say anything. A legal analyst for ABC pointed out that the judge went too far — he could have simply called a recess.
Rhodus's mother has custody of her older son and Knight ultimately issued six-month protective order that bars Rhodus from seeing him. Rhodus thinks the episode affected both her testimony and the judge's decision. "It caught me completely off-guard. I couldn’t think straight to present my case properly," she told the Post. "It was just — I was in shock."
(Excerpt) Read more at nymag.com ...
eeew
Why has this become a “civil right”?
What is it with these women that insist on performing a bodily function where everyone else has to see it?
No sense of decorum anymore.
She looks like she’s a pretty tall woman ....
And she celebrated diversity. Good for her.
A simple cloth diaper or shawl draped over her would preserve the modesty of other people even if she has none herself
Don’t get me started on this one! My sister is a breast-feeding activist. She encouraged her daughter to whip out the boob in front of everybody when baby was hungry. I am 100% on board with breast-feeding, but there is no need to make a statement and, even in breastfeeding, modesty is still a virtue.
I was going to say I'm glad she's someone else's problem, but I get the feeling that she's every NC taxpayer's problem.
The judge issued an order. Is there a problem?
Why is this woman in front if so many judges? 2 in a week ?!?
Did you read the story? The baby doesn’t want to be covered and doesn’t care about decorum. Funny, they are like that.
At one time people understood breastfeeding was about the baby, not the breast, and certainly not about you.
We had a militant breast feeder at church. The bad part is that she was very large. She was so big, she had an orbital pull.
Guilty!
Ahh... Future Bacon!
I breastfed whenever I needed to with a towel over my shoulder.
Women who do this are emotionally immature and that’s coupled with anger. So baring their breasts is a form of childish throwing a fit and like a child they have no regard for others around them. I feel sorry for their children.
I was going through security at Reagan National Airport in DC. Right past security there was a woman breast feeding her baby facing everyone.
She seemed to be doing it for the attention.
I think she just whipped it out.
She should have covered herself and there would have been no issue.
I see mine in the mirror every day but don’t want to see anyone’s in public.
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