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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (102427)	9/17/2005 1:25:07 PM
From: Pogeu Mahone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Common Sense, the most uncommon sense of all Instructor who let woman breast-feed claims prejudice By Laurel J. Sweet Saturday, September 17, 2005 A driver retraining instructor who veered from the rule book to let a student breast-feed her baby claims in a lawsuit that the National Safety Council is punishing him by depriving him of business. ``It just seems unfortunate that there's this kind of unaccommodating attitude about what seems to be a pretty natural and pretty reasonable thing,'' attorney Paul Merry said on behalf of David Seely, 50, of Westminster. Seely's job with the nonprofit organization is to correct the attitudes of bad drivers on their last leg with the law. Public breast feeding is not a protected right in Massachusetts, though a bill pending in the Legislature would change that. According to his suit, Seely feared that the mother, who was his student in 2003, would slap him with a discrimination complaint if he didn't let her step outside the class to nurse – exactly what Seely's suit says the NSC told him not to let her do ``other than at break.'' During the eight-hour session, the mother had left her infant with a babysitter in a hallway. But when the baby started wailing and other students began complaining, Seely caved and let the mother feed her child. Afterward, he dutifully reported his action to the NSC. And ever since, his suit claims, the NSC has cut back on sending him students, causing a 75-percent drop in his business and costing him $50,000 in lost income. NSC spokeswoman Elizabeth Wilson declined to comment. The NSC's Massachusetts Driver Retraining Program, where Seely has worked as an instructor for 10 years, doesn't address breast feeding directly in its classroom etiquette. But it clearly states, ``No one will be admitted with a child.'' Other grounds for dismissal include rudeness, vulgar behavior, smoking, packing a firearm and snoozing. Seely is charging the NSC with employment discrimination. A similar suit he filed last October was dismissed on Aug. 30 by Superior Court Judge Thomas Murtagh, who found that because the mother was not employed by NSC, Seely couldn't claim he'd been discriminated against by standing up for her rights. Seely contends in his latest suit filed this month that he was acting ``consistently with and in furtherance of Massachusetts' clearly articulated public policy against discrimination on the basis of sex.'' ``I think he did the right thing,'' Merry said of Seely, ``and I would like to see this resolved in a fair and equitable way.''