'Apology' lacking, nursing mom says

OREM — Despite having her story covered by more than 100 news organizations, Catherine Geary and her husband say that a Sandy Burger King remains unapologetic about sending an employee last week to ask Geary to stop breast-feeding her baby or leave the restaurant.

In a letter sent to the Burger King Corp. on Wednesday, the Gearys said they are frustrated with the company's issuance of a "blanket apology," which "might just as well be apologizing to the patron who complained about the breast-feeding, or even a patron at the drive-through whose order may have been delayed due to the drive-through employee being sent to talk to us."

The letter also addressed a clerical error in Burger King's apology, which suggested the event took place on Nov. 10. According to the Gearys, it was Nov. 8 when a female employee asked Geary — who said she was discreetly nursing her 9-month-old daughter under an oversize sweater — to use the restaurant's bathroom to finish nursing.

"As the restroom in the facility is made up of two walls, a sink and an air hand dryer, it did not seem a suitable place to nurse a child," the Gearys' letter reads. "We feel that the only real option given to us was to leave the restaurant."

Burger King has said the employee was acting on a customer complaint, but the Gearys argue that a Utah law allowing public breast-feeding gave Catherine Geary the legal right to nurse. That law, passed in 1995, permits "a woman's breast-feeding in any place where the woman otherwise may rightfully be."

Whether or not Burger King — a private business that reserves the right to withhold service from any customer — must comply with that law is unclear.

"Our perspective is that we wish to push Burger King into clarifying for all of us where they do stand on nursing mothers," Michael Geary told the Deseret Morning News. "If they don't want mothers nursing in their restaurants, well, I think that's something that ought to be made public so that consumers can respond with their patronage, or lack of patronage."

The Gearys are asking Burger King to post a "policy within the store declaring their support or nonsupport of breast-feeding women" and include a "section in the Burger King (employee) manual on how to appropriately and discreetly handle these situations in the future."

"We have asked for nothing more than an apology for the way that Catherine and our family were treated . . . and are disappointed by their response to this date," added the Gearys, who say they may "escalate" the issue if the fast-food company doesn't comply with their requests.

A Burger King spokesman could not be reached for comment.

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E-mail: lwarner@desnews.com