Woman barred from breast-feeding files complaint

Simone Manigo-Truell dos Santos has filed a complaint with the D.C. Office of Human Rights after she was told by a security guard she could not breast-feed while awaiting her traffic ticket hearing. Dos Santos was at the Henry Daly Building in Northwest with her 4 1/2-month-old son. She says she went into a corridor and sat on the floor to breast-feed him. A security guard told her she could not sit in the area, while a second told her she was not permitted to breast-feed in a public corridor of a government building.

Dos Santos has files a complaint since the incident. An amendment to the D.C. Human Rights Act of 1977 ensures a woman’s right to breast-feed in any public or private location where she has a right to be with her child. Dos Santos says she would like an apology, and for increased education in the law and in sensitivity. “You can know what the law is, but if you look at a woman cross-eyed when she’s nursing her child, that can be uncomfortable even though no words are said,” Dos Santos said.