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: "Maam, 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 couldnt think straight to present my case properly," she told the Post. "It was just I was in shock."
(Excerpt) Read more at nymag.com ...
:) You, Milady, are my hero!
Gaah. There’s a mental image I didn’t need, while eating lunch... :)
How illogical do you have to be, to misrepresent my argument with a silly straw-man?
See my comment at #59, especially the last two lines.
Honestly: how is it that people can be so "all or nothing" (i.e. bare breasts to the public while breastfeeding, or else no breastfeeding at all) about this? Do these people think that, since they kiss their child after a bath, they need to drink the bathwater, too, or else throw out the baby with it? When last I checked, there were a few options other than those two extremes...
I’m curious what kind of woman wants people other than her husband looking at her bare chest?? To me, that’s a privilege that has to be earned, so to speak, and out of simple respect for my marriage vows (among other reasons), I’d cover the hell up and be discreet.
“Women who do this are not concerned about their babies; they are exhibitionists.”
Exactly.
Thank you, sneakers!
>How selfish do you have to be to begrudge an infant eating?<
This has nothing to do with the Infant. Nice Liberal talking point Straw Man.
It has to do with the so called Mother being Discreet and having some Common Decency and Manners.
Apparently it’s too hard for her to simply cover up.
After all, it’s all about her.
It would be totally inappropriate to bottle feed a baby in a courtroom let alone from the witness stand.
Don’t know who is contesting custody of her children but even taking her baby to court shows a total lack of judgment on her part at a time when she does NOT want her judgment questioned.
For something this important, she couldn’t find a sitter?
bump
And the mother should display the results to everyone?
So then, she pumps a couple of bottles before going to something as consequential as a court hearing. Not hard to figure out unless she is a modestysucks activist with no respect for complete strangers or for authority figures, such as the judge who will be deciding her case. Does she think it's optional whether her other child needs her? Apparently so.
Sounds like she secretly wanted to fail so her mother would have to continue taking care of her earlier "oops."
Good for you, mom, and may everything go well with you!
LOL!!
That’s one happy looking sow.
We never had those problems, nor did many of our firends.
Not that much of a breast is visible when breastfeeding — typically the bottom and the nipple are not, hardly much different than a lot of blouses and shirts no one seems to mind.
Some people are just grossed out by breastfeeding itself.
If she was showing her breasts in the courtroom without feeding a baby you could say that. As it stands, she was feeding a baby. The baby did not cooperate with being covered up. To turn that into a conspiracy to bare her breasts is just weird.
Not all babies will take a bottle once they have been breastfed.
Many pairs of eyeballs?
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