Posted on 11/15/2006 6:38:55 PM PST by Mr. Brightside
Nursing mom says plane kicked her off
Wed Nov 15, 1:22 PM ET
BURLINGTON, Vt. - A woman who claims she was kicked off an airplane because she was breast-feeding her baby has filed a complaint against two airlines, her attorney said.
Emily Gillette, 27, of Santa Fe, N.M., filed the complaint with the Vermont Human Rights Commission late last week against Delta Air Lines and Freedom Airlines, said her attorney, Elizabeth Boepple. Freedom was operating the Delta flight between Burlington and New York City.
Gillette said she was discreetly breast-feeding her 22-month-old daughter on Oct. 13 as their flight prepared to leave Burlington International Airport. She said she was seated by the window in the next-to-last row, her husband was seated between her and the aisle and no part of her breast was showing.
A flight attendant tried to hand her a blanket and told her to cover up, Gillette said. She declined, telling the flight attendant she had a legal right to breast-feed her baby.
Moments later, a Delta ticket agent approached and said the flight attendant had asked that the family be removed from the flight, Gillette said. She said she didn't want to make a scene and complied.
"It embarrassed me. That was my first reaction, which is a weird reaction for doing something so good for a child," Gillette said Monday.
A Freedom spokesman said Gillette was asked to leave the flight after she declined the blanket.
"A breast-feeding mother is perfectly acceptable on an aircraft, providing she is feeding the child in a discreet way," that doesn't bother others, said Paul Skellon, spokesman for Phoenix-based Freedom. "She was asked to use a blanket just to provide a little more discretion, she was given a blanket, and she refused to use it, and that's all I know."
A complaint against two airlines was filed with the Vermont Human Rights Commission, although Executive Director Robert Appel said he was barred by state law from confirming the complaint. He said state law allows a mother to breast-feed in public.
The Vermont Human Rights Commission investigates complaints and determines whether discrimination may have occurred. The parties to a complaint are given six months to reach a settlement. If none is reached, the commission then decides whether to go to court. A complainant can file a separate suit in state court at any time.
Flight attendants have discovered that they are now one of the most powerful groups of people on the planet.
They can cause people to be arrested, incarcerated, prosecuted, and their net worth confiscated on a whim.
Not too long ago, their job was to make people feel comfortable and be pleasing to the eye.
Nobody "denied" her the right to feed her child. They merely asked her to use the blanket. She chose to get huffy about it, which is probably the primary reason she was ejected from the plane.
She was kicked off for not covering up.
Willful ignorance is a stronghold of Leftists. Quit trying to plant it over here.
This is such BS.
My daughter has a 4-month-old and nursed her throughout an overseas flight, and also aboard flights in the U.S. while she was visiting here last month. She was very discreet and didn't annoy anyone.
Breastfeeding a child past its first birthday is not unusual, nursing a child that is almost 2 years old is something out of "National Geographic."
She was an ass for not cooperating with the airline. The airline was an ass for making a scene out of something that is inconsequential and not obscene, if as stated she was on a window seat with her husband in the middle it would have been discreet. Both sides of this fight need to get a life.
I have a legal right to urinate, but not to unzip myself on the way to the bathroom. Apparently she wasn't covered up enough. Explain how taking the blanket would have prevented her from continuing to breastfeed her daughter? Simply taking the blanket would have solved the problem. Nowhere does it say she was asked to stop breastfeeding until she refused to take the blanket.
And most 22 month olds will fight any attempts to cover them up and the result will be an actual distraction due to a screaming baby who just wants to nurse and not have a blanket over her, because it's not what she's used to. Then you have a screaming baby, an exposed breast and an embarassed mother.
See, I've been there before, so that thing you are trying to paint as ignorance is actually experience. The flight attended should have had a clue and left a discreet situation alone, not raise a stupid stink about it.
No, that is not true. By the age of 6 months, doctors are urging that they get cereal and veggies because breast milk (and/or formula) is not meeting their nutritional/developmental needs.
When you remove your breast from your shirt, then yes, the burden is on you to make sure it is properly concealed while you are nursing.
LMAO. I was wondering when someone was going to call the poster on that one. Some people can rationalize anything.
Was the blanket obviously clean, or was it frequently used on the plane? I wouldn't want some filthy public thing that close to my infant.
If you've been there, why did you need to lie about the facts?
By two years of age they have teeth, they can chew, they can eat human food...
She was making a statement. Having made it, bounce her. It isn't just all about me.
There is absolutely no nutritional/physiological benefit to nursing past one or so. Everything is developed, functioning, the child is transitioning to a cup, etc. Pediatricians do not advocate mursing till 'at least two' in any literature I have ever seen. Hubby is a physician by the way. I nursed mine to 14 and 13 months.
When I lived in Western Mass I was surrounded by the Nursing Nazis. There were advocates of nursing till 5, 6, etc. It was lame. I always felt those women were so insecure in there mothering that they needed to really make sure the world knew that They were the Best Mothers. All of those children turned out badly. Yuk.
Nurse till they are walking and drnking out of a cup. Two is the ego of the mum.
In your rant, you missed the blanket part. Is there some right out there worth protecting that the act of breast feeding is such a sacramental act, that it must be in plain view?
Teh 22 month old daughter was named "River". Makes you wonder doesn't it?
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