A South Carolina woman who gave birth just around the beginning of her semesters at Lander University and USC brought her son to class at the encouragement of her professor.
Sarah Thompson is 26 years old and, while she is working toward a degree, she and her boyfriend Chris Maggiacomo are taking care of their infant son, Isaiah. She said that Isaiah's due date was the day before her first day of classes at Lander and online classes for USC.
Thompson's Lander mathematics professor, Dr. Josie Ryan, knew that Thompson had recently had a baby and had previously asked her to bring Isaiah to class. One morning, Thompson finally did so. Ryan decided to take the sleeping child off Thompson's hands and hold him carefully while continuing to teach the entire class. She also showed Thompson to a breastfeeding room for future as-needed use.
"I didn't want to miss anything important, and so the fact that [Ryan] lets me bring him when my parents are busy, or Chris's mom is busy, or ... Chris is at school and work every day," Thompson said, "The fact that I can bring him with me is very nice. And her showing me to the breastfeeding room was nice, too."
Thompson said that while she was pregnant with her son, she had a yoga class at USC as well as two summer classes on the top floor of the mathematics building. It was hot, and she was exhausted and hormonal, she said, but her instructors were nice and even sent her gifts since they could not attend a baby shower.
Thompson's teachers at USC were graduate student Jaree Hudson for math, Angela Still for yoga, lecturer Stephen Slice for economics and Shannon McCutchen, Darla Moore School of Business faculty advisor, for accounting.
"So, I've actually run into a lot more of really kind, accepting teachers than just [Ryan] ... It made it a lot easier to be happy and excited about it," Thompson said of juggling school work and childcare. "It's very easy to be fearful that everything's going to stop and change, and so I kind of decided that I was going to be positive about it no matter what."
The in-class reactions to little Isaiah were positive. Thompson is one of only two women in her math class, and while she thinks the class might have been "shocked" at first, they were ultimately pleased with the baby's presence.
"[He] wasn't stinky and annoying and loud like everyone would imagine," Thompson said. "'It was sweet and cute. He just slept the whole time."
Thompson has brought baby Maggiacomo to class several times since that day and even said the people ask where he is when she doesn't bring him.
When Thompson brings her son to class, Ryan allows everyone to "get out [their] 'oohs' and 'ahhs'" before class begins.
"I'll put him in, like, 'Star Wars'-themed stuff and my class is super nerdy so we love that," Thompson said. "And we'll kind of get it all out and talk about how cute he is, and then we'll get to the math right after that."
Thompson says that her son is well-behaved and very "engaged," and she thinks he's going to be smart. She also said that after she'd posted a photo of Ryan holding Isaiah in class, she expected people to like it and respond to it, but did not expect it to go viral. She called Ryan and asked if she needed to take it down — she was not even supposed to have her phone out — but Ryan said people had already called her about it and that she did not mind.
What stuck with Thompson in her situation was how supportive and accepting people were. She said she would never forget how kind her instructors had been to her.