A mother of three in Fresno had an unusual battle in a courtroom the other day, a battle over being a mother.
According to a story in The Fresno Bee, Christa Pehl Evans, who has 3 kids under the age of 7, asked Judge James Petrucelli to excuse her from serving on a jury, saying she needs to take care of her children. She breastfeeds her youngest and home-schools her two other kids.
Christa said the judge kept questioning her about why she just couldn’t get child care. She said she felt he was trying to bully her into complying.
So she went on Facebook to criticize the judge for what she said was an attack on her and mothers everywhere.
Christa, who has a PhD from Princeton, put it this way:
“I am more than happy to serve on the jury when my children are older, but my most important duty to this country at this moment is to raise loving human beings, a job that consumes me all day and many nights ...”
“We can #metoo all we want about sexual assault, but until we respect mothering as a valid and important occupation, we have a major sexist problem. Paid work is not the only work that matters.”
Christa was excused from jury duty for temporary hardship but she has been ordered to return to court to serve in January. Stay tuned.
WATCH Fresno Bee interview with Christa below.
(Photo credit YouTube)