High School Cancels Breastfeeding Demonstration
Posted by Amber Robinson at 9:33 AM on July 13, 2009
A Melbourne high school cancelled a planned breastfeeding demonstration for year 7 and 8 students by an ABA counsellor because the teenagers did not have parental consent.
As reported over at Essential Baby, Sarah Simmonds, a volunteer from the Australian Breastfeeding Association’s community education program, had been invited to Hume Central Secondary College in Broadmeadows earlier this month with her four-month-old son Billy.
The visit was part of a class on the life cycle and how babies are cared for. When Sarah and a colleague arrived at the school however, they were told by staff that they could only could demonstrate how to bath the baby but not to breastfeed. It appears the staff, including the principal, had second thoughts about not receiving explicit consent from parents to allow the students to see a child being breastfed.
Of course, this kind of made a mockery of the whole “anywhere, everywhere” message the ABA was trying to promote.
As Ms Simmonds says, “Our message was it’s natural and you can do it anywhere – except here. It was such a mixed message for the kids. We were trying to convey that this is something that every mum should be able to do and every child should have the opportunity to be breastfed and that we shouldn’t have to think about where we are and whether it’s appropriate.”
Principal Glenn Proctor said he had to be “sensitive” to all the nationalities at the school and he felt parental consent was necessary before children could watch a woman breastfeed her baby.
Well, err… if he felt it was necessary, why didn’t he arrange consent forms before the visit? Sounds like bad planning to me. That is beside the point of whether we even class breastfeeding as something controversial and potentially offensive.
I mean it’s not illegal to breastfeed in public, so wouldn’t a public school come under that? I have been to a couple of ABA demonstrations myself and believe me, they’re not a tits-out frenzy. The baby would have been promptly placed on a breast mostly concealed by a bra and/or clothes. You’d probably see more at the local beach.
Do you think the school acted too conservatively?
The school was far too conservative in this instance. They acted out of simple fear. The point at which the Principal should have either arranged consent forms or cancelled the demonstration was long before Ms. Simmonds arrived. Had I been her, I might well have walked out rather than participate in what amounted to an anti-breastfeeding event.