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Trump Reps Refuse to Meet Moms Whose Babies Died in Day Care

By Kathleen Culliton | August 22, 2016 6:03pm
 Ali Dodd gives a box of more than 135,000 signatures to a Trump campaign representative in the Trump Tower Lobby.
Ali Dodd gives a box of more than 135,000 signatures to a Trump campaign representative in the Trump Tower Lobby.
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DNAinfo/Kathleen Culliton

MIDTOWN — A Brooklyn mom whose 3-month-old baby boy died in day care in SoHo last summer — who has since garnered more than 135,000 signatures on her petition for paid maternity leave legislation — was refused admittance into Trump headquarters Monday morning.

Amber Scorah, a Democrat from Brooklyn who lost her son, Karl Towndrow, and Ali Dodd, a Republican from Oklahoma whose son Shepard also died in day care, arrived at Trump Tower at 11 a.m. to try to persuade the presidential candidate to pledge himself to their cause.

“The policy is stuck in the 1950s,” Scorah said of the the Family Medical Leave Act, which mandates women receive at least 12 weeks of unpaid maternity leave but does not require paid leave, or any paternity leave.  

“Our children should never have been at risk,” added Dodd, who felt financially obligated to return to work and put her son in day care 10 weeks after she gave birth. “Neither of us had any option at all.”

The duo had been told that a Trump representative would meet with them in campaign offices but when the two women entered the lobby, a man in a blue fleece vest with the Trump logo took the box and refused to let them onto the elevator.  

Scorah, who had her 2-month-old daughter, Sevi, strapped across her chest, and Dodd, who is eight months pregnant, stood in the lobby for 30 minutes with a dozen supporters waiting for a response before they gave up and left.

A Trump representative did not immediately respond to DNAinfo New York's request for comment.

"Even if Mr. Trump isn't supportive, he should say so," said Dodd. "America is waiting."

Dodd, a Republican, said she has not decided who she will vote for in November. 

But Kathryn Martin, 28, a Republican from Greenville, South Carolina, whose daughter Kelli Ryn died in a day care center in 2014, said when she walked into Trump Tower this morning she was a Trump supporter.

"Being a Republican, it was disappointing," said Martin. "It was like we were just annoying them." 

She will no longer be voting for Trump, she said. 

Adrienne Kromer, 30, a mother from Slatington, Pennsylvania, whose 3-month-old daughter died in day care on April 1, joined Scorah and Dodd in New York even though she doesn't follow politics. 

"My vote will be swayed if one candidate supports it and another does not," said Kromer.

Kromer also came with her 10-year-old daughter McKayla to deliver a letter McKayla wrote to Trump asking him to support the cause.  McKayla began to cry as they waited outside Trump Tower and was unable to speak, so her mother described what was inside the letter.

"She asked him the questions that nobody really asks,” said Kromer.  “Would you be comfortable sending your infant to day care? Would you be afraid?"

Hours later, Scorah and Dodd attended a scheduled meeting at Hillary Clinton's Brooklyn Heights headquarters discussing tactics with Clinton adviser Jennifer Klein and other representatives. Both Dodd and Scorah told their supporters afterward they were well satisfied with the meeting.  

Clinton representatives declined to comment on the meeting.