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