Mary Lawmaster, a new mother and an admission counselor at Ashford University in San Diego has accused the management of not providing a private space to pump her breast milk.

Lawmaster claims that less than a year ago, when she gave birth to her daughter, Madeline, she requested the HR for an appropriate location to pump her breast milk. The school then allocated a modified storage room to her, which could be accessed by badges. However, within a few days, someone walked into the room.

"I felt horrible. I spent the rest of the day trying not to cry. I felt exposed," Lawmaster said.

In the next couple of months, people continued to barge into the room several times. When she asked the HR for a door lock, they blatantly refused for over four months.

"I felt like they thought of me as a nuisance and brushed me off to the side," said Lawmaster.

Later, Lawmaster's attorney, Dan Gilleon wrote a letter to the school that forced them to finally agree to insert a proper lock. Gilleon said that the university could have attached a lock on the door earlier but never did.

"The bottom line is our society has said we're not going to allow pregnancy [to] be something you can discriminate over," said Gilleon.

Lawmaster also claimed that before her daughter was born, she experienced frequent sexual harassment from her manager.

"A manager stopped a team meeting so everyone could take a look to see my legs and how they looked in a pair of pants," Lawmaster said. "I cried on my way to work all the time," she added.

Supporting her, Lawmaster's husband commented:

"Her hands would be shaking and she'd put her head on my shoulder and not want to go in."

Lawmaster filed a complaint with the State Department of Fair Employment and Housing and is expected to file a civil lawsuit soon.