I really dont even know what to think about this
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That is so wrong. (The principal and school district).
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My employer does not allow me to pump at work either. Washington state has law that protect nursing mothers, but he is exempt because of some stupid loophole. When I come home from work I pretty much rip my clothes off and nurse my LO immediately.
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That totally sucks, but I guess I'm not surprised that the school was unable to cover her for 15 minutes - presumably most aids are in use for a full class period and wouldn't be available to leave their class for 15, but I don't really know.
I'm surprised she didn't try to get by with just expressing her milk twice during the school hours, and maybe trying to do more at night or in the morning before school or something. I don't know anything about her situation, but I think I would've tried to make do before quitting.
It sucks she was put in this situation though. I didn't realized salaried employees were exempt from the protection for nursing mothers. That's not cool.
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You'd think that in a SCHOOL, normally full of young women who love children, there would already be a set up in place for this. My sister worked in a school when she went back after having her son and she had a hellish time finding a time and place to pump. She shared a room with other therapists so couldn't pump in there and resorted to using a storage closet with no lock.
Good for this woman for making waves those. A lot of people, my sister included, didn't want to draw attention to the time she spent pumping and just made do. -
With her being a teacher I can imagine it would be hard for her to find someone to sit in on her classroom while she was pumping and I kind of don't blame the school. Especially seeing as they aren't legally obligated. I do also like how they now have a place to pump during her planning hour and lunch break.
@Mrsdaredevil: doesn't let you pump or doesn't give you a special break to pump? Like if you did it on your lunch break then they wouldn't care would they?
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As a former teacher I've seen this type of thing happen far too frequently. Even if there were aides available to cover they cant legally do so because there has to be a licensed teacher in the room with students at all times. Ifeltreally baffle coworkers who had specials (music/pe) around lunch time because then their break time wasn't spread throughout the day and they basically only got one time to pump.
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@Mrsdaredevil: Yeah I also dont get to pump at work, so when I get home thats the first thing I do, I am literally bursting
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I won't complain about our grimy lactation room at my job anymore! It's better than no room at all.
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Ugh that sucks. She should complain to the union.
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That is a really tough situation, because providing her with a place to pump and allowing aides to cover her class (especially on a daily basis) are two separate issues. As the parent of a child in her class, I don't know how I'd feel about my child losing 15 minutes of instructional time every day, or there not being a teacher present, even if I understood the pumping situation - that's an hour every week. Maybe it would have been possible to reschedule her prep period/specials? It's a hassle, but not as much as the alternatives.
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@Mrsdaredevil: I didn't know you started working again! What are you doing? And that sucks about pumping
Re: article; okay so three 15-min sessions a day, I guess I can understand that being an issue... but they wouldn't allow even one 15 minute break a day? What about lunch break?
also, those times seem kooky... Elementary school is usually 9:15-3:15 (in my district anyway), so how hard would it be for her to pump at 8:45 instead and then after class is over, then she still gets three sessions a day...
I guess I don't understand her situation so idk if she had already tried alternate schedules.
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@Adira: It said that she asked if she could do it just once a day too and they said no.
@Coco Bee: The article said her pediatrician recommended the times, so maybe that was part of the issue?
It seems crazy to me that she is exempt from the law as a teacher. Also, I get the concern about losing an hour of instructional time, but come on, there is way more than an hour of downtime in schools anyway. Kids working on worksheets or watching a video, listening to a story, reading on their own, that sort of thing. A teacher's aide would not harm their education then.
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I was a teacher in NY when I was pumping. I never asked for special time to pump, but I had to do it during my free periods. And one, male, administrator decided I was missing too many department meeting while I was pumping, so the meetings were moved to my room while I was pumping
What's worse is they hired a new GUY (who was single and young) teacher and didn't even tell him that I would be pumping during his first department meeting.
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@Mrsbells: You must have an opinion, I mean, you posted the article, so it must have hit a nerve, no?
I had to look up the FLSA, does it cover only employees that make an hourly wage? I am wondering why she couldn't also pump when her class was in gym, at lunch, having art class, etc.
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I have many friends who are teachers and nurse. They all pump right before classes start, at lunch in their empty classroom, and as soon as classes end before leaving for the day. It sucks that her school was so ugly about it, but I'm surprised that she couldn't work anything else out, too. I don't know her situation, though.
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@MamaBehr: The look on his face must have been priceless!
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She doesn't have recess, lunch, and afternoon breaks to pump during?
I have a hard time buying that she was really doing everything she could to make this work. There's almost always a way to make it work. She is not the first and only teacher to ever have to pump on the job. The Principal is tied by the laws, and like others said before, it's often illegal for aids to cover classrooms without a teacher being there.
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When I was in elementary school, we didn't have recess, the teachers were with us at lunch, and we only had things like music or library where our teachers weren't responsible for us once a week. I think part of the issue was her pediatrician wanted her to pump on a specific schedule too. I don't think she probably just quit willy nilly or to get a news article - losing half of your income is a big deal!
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3 15 min breaks over the course of a day is way too much when you are a teacher. And let's be honest- you know it isn't going to be 15 minutes. I've pumped before and between the setup, cleaning of parts, etc there's just no way (and I was at home). I understand trying to accommodate people but you also need to be doing the job you were hired for. It sounds like she wasn't trying to work with them to find a solution that worked for both parties.
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@blackbird: If you click on the link to the full article it says her suggestion to compromise was for her to pump during her morning conference time, lunch and then she needed someone to cover for her at 2:30 for 15 minutes.
The full article also said that the aides weren't available to help because they were being used to cover other classrooms. It sounds like essentially the principal prioritized her need for coverage below others. Honestly, even though they weren't legally bound to, I think it's really crappy for the school to not try to accommodate her.
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Whether it's the law or not, I agree it's just crappy for them not to be able to work something out. And yeah, maybe she could have been more flexible too. But the main thing to me is, this must come up a lot at schools-- teachers like kids, teachers are more often women, so schools will probably have to deal with this more often than most businesses. Yet, from what I have heard, they seem to have worse policies than most offices I know. Part of it, of course, is that someone who works at a desk can take a 15-20 minute break whenever and it usually doesn't inconvenience anyone else, where, yeah, you can't leave a classroom empty so you can pump. But, why don't schools come up with something better and let the teachers know so they can work with it?
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I read the article, but it seemed that last 15 minutes was the issue. If they can't cover her, they can't cover her. I wonder what time school let out. For me, i had elementary school from 9-3. I don't know what morning conference means...but to me, that means a business meeting. Kind of awkward to pump during that time.
I'm curious what the aids were doing. It very well may have been a higher priority situation. My mother was an aid and she often was placed with special needs students that needed constant care.
Sometimes what you want to do doesn't necessarily mesh with the reality of the situation.
What's worse is they hired a new GUY (who was single and young) teacher and didn't even tell him that I would be pumping during his first department meeting.
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