Breast-feeding mom demands apology for indecent exposure ticket

GJsentinel ^ | July 28, 2005 - 11:33 p.m

[Asphalt]

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Never mind officials voiding a $50 ticket for indecent exposure, or an explanation from county officials that a ranger who issued the citation to the breast-feeding mother was inexperienced.

Dorian Ryan said she wants an apology for what she called a "humiliating and degrading" experience.

"This isn't right. Women shouldn't be harassed for breast-feeding their children," Dorian Ryan said.

Colorado lawmakers agree. A law passed last year gives women the right to breast feed anywhere she's allowed to be in public.

Ryan, 43, was ticketed for indecent exposure July 14 when she breast fed her son at the Carter Lake swim beach in Larimer County. She was shielded from view by two umbrellas and a towel.

An inexperienced park ranger mistakenly issued the ticket, said Dan Rieves, manager of the Blue Mountain District, which oversees the beach. Park officials have voided the ticket.

Rieves, who has been in contact with Ryan, said a written apology would be sent Friday.

[bdfromlv]

I want to know what the age for breast feeding in public is (at 50 I sometimes feel the urge and dont want any trouble and can you get a double like in a bar)

[A.A. Cunningham]

She was shielded from view by two umbrellas and a towel.

Ryan has since decided to forego the umbrellas and towel

Maria J. Avila © News

Dorian Ryan, of Berthoud, breast-feeds her 1-year-old son, Jimmie Tacy, during her usual Thursday visit to Carter Lake. Ryan was issued a $50 ticket for public indecency by a ranger for breast-feeding in public on July 14. The ticket has since been dismissed.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3962606,00.html

Breast-feeding mom ticketed
Citation dismissed; law passed last year guarantees her right

By Bianca Prieto, Rocky Mountain News
July 29, 2005

Since 1-year-old Jimmie Tacy was born, he has known one steady source of nutrition - his mother's breast.

Because he refuses to drink from a bottle, his mom, Dorian Ryan, breast-feeds him, even in public.

That was never a problem until July 14, when Ryan was issued a $50 summons and complaint at Carter Lake in Larimer County for "knowingly (exposing) one's genitals in a public place."

"I was horrified," said Ryan, 41. "It made me stop breast-feeding my kid."

But the law was on her side. Last year, legislators passed a bill that states "a mother may breast-feed in any place she has a right to be."

Ryan said that a week before she was ticketed, rangers approached her and asked her to stop breast-feeding or they would cite her for indecent exposure. They implied that she was violating a Larimer County Parks and Open Lands regulation for having her breast exposed.

"I had no intention of stopping," Ryan said. "I have the kind of kid who won't take a bottle. I don't have a choice."

The next week, the Berthoud woman made sure she was fully covered when she breast-fed.

"I made a cave for myself out of umbrellas," Ryan said.

She said she placed a 4-foot-wide beach umbrella behind her, and another one above her. Wearing a man's sleeveless shirt over her swimsuit, she sat down to feed her child. Other families sat along the beach, and she thought she went unnoticed.

But rangers with binoculars were stationed on a cliff about 100 yards away, she said, and she was ticketed that day.

"I could not have been more discreet than I was," Ryan said. "They were waiting for this to happen."

Ryan complied, but she was upset. She called park officials and asked that the charges be thrown out and that an apology be issued.

On July 16, Dan Rieves, park manager at Carter Lake, agreed and told Ryan and her husband, Mitch Tacy, that the complaint would be dismissed and that they would receive a letter of apology.

By Thursday, the couple had received neither, but they did get a phone call from Rieves, saying that the documents were being reviewed by the county's legal department and would be sent soon, Tacy said.

Rieves said that "poor judgment was used in issuing the ticket."

"I had no problem in dismissing the ticket," he said. "We agree the ticket was groundless and it should have never been written."

The employee who issued it has been with the department since May and is a temporary summer employee, Rieves said. The female employee was reminded of what actions merit citations, Rieves said.

Tacy, an attorney, called the ranger's actions "degrading" but said that he and his wife were particularly angry because the ranger's supervisor was present when she wrote the ticket.

Instead of intervening, the supervisor, also a woman, warned Ryan that she would be booted from the beach if she was caught breast-feeding again, Tacy said.

Rieves could not be reached late Thursday for comment on the supervisor's role.

A co-sponsor of the 2004 bill to allow breast-feeding in public said she is glad the law is in place.

"It was clearly needed; this just proves it," said former Rep. Pam Rhodes, R-Thornton.

Ryan feels the incident happened for a reason. She wants to help educate the public about breast-feeding laws.

"It would have been much more stressful if I didn't know I had the law on my side," Ryan said. "People should know that it is OK to breast-feed in public."

Mother's milk

COLORADO'S LAW

• "A mother may breast-feed in any place she has a right to be."

BY THE NUMBERS

• More than 83 percent of Colorado infants are breast-fed at least once.

• More than 45 percent of them are breast-fed at 6 months, and more than 21 percent are breast-fed at 12 months.

• Colorado is one of eight states where from 41 to 50 percent of children are breast-fed at 6 months. Source: The Center For Disease Control And Prevention, 2003

prietob@RockyMountainNews.com 303-892-5219

[Politicalmom]

All I know is that I always bear my breasts in public. : )

[Augie76]

Sounds like somebody's on a crusade against breastfeeding.

[raybbr]

This would be my sincere apology:

Does your mommy know you are playing here?

[Finalapproach29er]

LOL

[drjimmy]

All I know is that I always bear my breasts in public. : )

I hope it's not too much of a burden.....or maybe I do.....I'd better just stop now.

[raybbr]

This is beyond amazing. She was ticketed for breastfeeding at beach where virtually every women is exposing what they have to world by wearing a bikini???????

[tallhappy]

Obnoxo wimmin -- probably did deserve her ticket.

[tallhappy]

What should people do when they are falsely arrested or fined?

This attitude and obnoxiousness indicates she was probabloy properly fined and it was well deserved.

[Dante3]

With breast-pumps available, there is no need for anyone to bare their breasts in public.

As for demanding an apology, I am sick and tired of these apology tirades.

[softwarecreator]

All I know is that I always bear my breasts in public

You shouldn't repress these feelings, you need to express yourself and let it all out.

My luck to be so far from Georgia. {sigh}

[Houmatt]

Who are the morons who passed the law allowing breast feeding in public?

How would you like to be sitting in a restaurant and some woman at a nearby table whips out a boob to nurse her youngun?

Somebody was not thinking, here.

[paul51]

At least she isn't suing

That will be step two on her road to justice

[Hischild]

Actually the ranger was a female who was somewhat new on the job.

I think the story on the news here also stated that the woman was first given a warning, and came back the following week "determined to breast feed her child on the beach." Almost sounded like she was itching for a confrontation.

[Ma3lst0rm]

I don't understand why one would want an apology in such a case but I do believe that if people were to take more responsibility for their mistakes and simply apologize there would be less lawsuits. Instead they get a lawyer and then the lawyer tells them to not admit any fault and then the person who was insulted or harmed by accident gets further upset and gets another lawyer and the cycle escalates and who benefits the most from the resulting animus, the lawyers.

[Houmatt]

Which part of "She was shielded from view by a towel and two umbrellas" did you not comprehend?

That's not the point. There is a time and place for it, and right out in front of everybody is not it.

[ElkGroveDan]

The ranger who ticketed the woman for breast feeding with a towel covering herself is either poorly trained or political correct zombie.

Unless she was a trouble-making hippy type who dropped her blouse exposing both breasts in plain view, just daring someone to object. I've seen it before. There are two sides to every story, I'd like to hear the ranger's side of this.

[BibChr]

A breast is a breast: not for public display, whether you're using it for feeding, salacious ends, or cleaning a windshield.

If she didn't expose it, she should not have been ticketed, and an apology is minimal and appropriate. If she did, and there was a law against it, she should have been ticketed, no apology.

OMO, YMMV

Dan

[kiki04]

COLORADO'S LAW

• "A mother may breast-feed in any place she has a right to be."

Why are we so obsessed with breast, to the point where a woman is made to feel guilty about feeding a hungry baby in public? She was shielded from view, and all women I know use something to nurse discretely. What, would you rather see all babies bottle-fed, so the breast becomes sexual-only in nature, instead of nurturing? I nursed my daughter, and will nurse subsequent children. I had to nurse in public a few times, always stayed discreet, however there was once where my daughter decided to play peek a boo with the blanket...

Oh, and even in an SUV or minivan, it is hard to nurse because of limited space. and don't dare suggest a woman should nurse in a filthy bathroom to stay out of public view, unless you were willing to eat your meal there...