Mom of four Lucy Eades was at a recreation center in Burleson, Texas breastfeeding her 16-day-old while her older daughter was in dance class. When an employee of the city asked her to cover up or leave, she got into a verbal altercation about her rights to do what she was doing in public and her husband filmed the back and forth.
The clip was posted to YouTube and went viral on various parenting websites. Underneath in the description on YouTube, Eades provided the address and phone number for the center. Here’s the footage:
ABC affiliate WFAA reported that Eades was the second woman who was asked to cover up at the center that day. The City of Burleson released the following statement defending their employee’s actions:
The City of Burleson supports breastfeeding and appreciates recognition of National Breastfeeding Week. The city also supports the law, which states, “A mother is entitled to breast-feed her baby in any location in which the mother is authorized to be.” Today, two women were breastfeeding in or near a public entrance to the city’s recreation center where we were hosting a camp for youth ages 5 – 13 in addition to other recreation center patrons. To be respectful of everyone’s rights we asked the women to cover up. There is nothing in the law that prohibits the city from requiring a mother to cover up. We also offered a room in an attempt to be more accommodative. The city did not attempt to prohibit breastfeeding and we fully support the freedom of mothers to breastfeed as long as it doesn’t infringe on someone else’s freedom.
The YouTube channel to which the clip was posted features over 1,500 videos posted by the couple about their family and parenting.
Do you believe the city had a right to ask Eades to cover up or were they way off base?
