Dike v. School Board

650 F.2d 783 (1981)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P is employed by D as a kindergarten teacher. After giving birth to her child, she returned to her teaching post. P wished to breastfeed the child and sought a means of doing so that would not disrupt the education of children attending the school or interfere with her discharge of work responsibilities. P arranged to bring the child to school during her lunch period when she was free from any duties. P would then nurse the child in privacy in a locked room into which other persons could not see. P alleges that this routine did not disrupt the educational process at the school or her work performance. After three months of this routine without disruption or incident, the school principal directed P to stop nursing her child on campus, citing a school board directive prohibiting teachers from bringing their children to work with them for any reason. The principal threatened disciplinary action should P continue to nurse the child at school. P stopped. P pumped breast milk and fed the baby by bottle. The baby developed observable psychological changes that also affected her own emotional well-being. P requested permission to resume her earlier procedure, but doing it off campus during her non-duty time or to nurse the child in her camper van in the school parking lot. D denied these requests, apparently relying on another policy prohibiting teachers from leaving school premises during the school day. The infant began refusing to nurse from a bottle. P thus had no choice but to breastfeed the child. P was compelled to take an unpaid leave of absence for the remainder of the school term. P sued D alleging that it had unduly interfered with a constitutionally protected right to nurture her child by breastfeeding. The court dismissed her complaint and awarded attorney fees in that P’s complaint was frivolous. P appealed.