Panel faults airlines for removing breast-feeding passenger
Toolbox
The Associated Press - Published: March 28, 2008
MONTPELIER — The Vermont Human Rights Commission on Thursday ruled there were reasonable grounds to believe Freedom Airlines discriminated against a New Mexico woman ordered off a plane after refusing to cover up while breast-feeding her infant, an official said.
The case went before the commission after an investigator found reasonable grounds to believe that Freedom Airlines, a subsidiary of Mesa Air Group, Inc., discriminated against Emily Gillette, 28, said her attorney Beth Boepple.
The full commission heard the case on Thursday. The proceedings were not open to the public, but its decision was released afterward.
"The commission determined that Mesa, operating as Freedom Airlines, there were reasonable grounds to believe that entity or entities violated Vermont's prohibition against discrimination against women breast-feeding in places of public accommodation," said Commission Executive Director Robert Appel.
A spokesman for Mesa did not return two phone calls Thursday or an e-mail seeking comment.
The Human Rights Commission is not a court and can't rule legally that the airline violated Vermont's anti-discrimination law, Appel said. "It's an administrative decision by an agency charged with enforcing anti-discrimination law," he said.
Vermont's Public Accommodations Act allows mothers to breast-feed their children in public.
Gillette, of Santa Fe, N.M., was in Vermont Thursday for the first time since the incident to appear before the commission.
"I feel really grateful, still, for the way the state's set up. And I feel like it's really important for us to show up as a sign of gratitude for everything the state has done to uphold its laws, and to show up for the commission, who have put so much time and effort into investigating this case," she said.
On Oct. 13, 2006, Gillette, her husband and their then 22-month-old daughter, River, were headed to New York. While waiting at the gate to take off, Gillette, seated next to the window in the next to last row, began to breast-feed her child.
She says a flight attendant handed her a blanket and told her to cover up. She refused.
A short time later they were removed from the plane.
Mesa operates flights for Delta Airlines.
The incident sparked a series of "nurse-in" protests at Delta airlines ticket counters across the country.
Delta was not involved in Thursday's hearing.
"Delta fully supports a mother's right to breast-feed her children on board our aircraft," said Delta Spokesman Anthony Black.
Now the Human Rights commission will work with Gillette and Freedom to try to negotiate a settlement. If that fails, a lawsuit could be filed by the commission or Gillette.
40