Friend harassed by mall security for breastfeeding

[Earthy Mama]

Last night a good friend of mine was at the mall and got dinner before she came home. Her daughter (4 months old) was hungry, too, so she started to nurse. A security officer V. came up and told her to go to the bathroom or cover up because this was private property and there were a lot of people around. My friend T. said that in SC, breastfeeding mothers are protected by law to be able to bf in public and cannot be told to hide away or cover up. V. called for backup and then called the city police!!

T. called me crying and upset because she was humiliated and made to feel like she was doing something wrong. I honestly could not believe that it had escalated to that point.

Fastforward to today, she interviewed with the local news (I'll post the clip when it goes online) and the mall said they were just trying to "help". This officer stood over T. the ENTIRE time she was there and told her she was going anywhere or doing anything until the police showed up. Well, when the police FINALLY came an hour or more later, he was all "uh, why am I here?"


News Clip

Virginia and I are on the left.....

The mall manager is so full of crappola....the officer was not there to "protect" her. I arrived at the mall about 15 minutes after all this started. No one was gawking or making comments. Who does that? The only one making a scene was the officer. Also, the fact that she CONTINUED to hang around T.'s table after she was done bf'ing proved that she wasn't there to "protect" her while she was nursing. Her supervisor finally came over and once he made some calls getting himself educated on the actual law (he had no idea there was such a law, either) he told her she needed to apologize to T. she refused! She said she would NOT apologize. Can you believe that?

I took her to the LLL meeting in town today and she told them her story. The leader, a good friend of mine, told me that LLL doesn't get involved in matters like this because they don't want to isolate themselves from women who need help. They don't want to be seen as anything other than support. BUT, we contacted the SC Breastfeeding Coalition and they are organizing a nurse-in as we speak. And, other members of LLL in town are going to write letters to the mall.

If any of you guys would like to send a complaint as well, you are more than welcome to...hint hint...Click here

[Lori-n-Spartanburg]

How infuriating. I just emailed a complaint, and my hubby will do so as well. He stated that if they have no problem allowing Victoria Secret to display scantily clad manequins in very risque lingerie, and teen girls to dress however they please with the fashions these days, how could a natural thing like breastfeeding really be any kind of issue for anyone?

I think his point is pretty valid. The hypocrisy (sp?) is absurd.

[AutumnAir]

"North and South Carolina are two of 39 states that allow women to nurse in public.
Breastfeeding is not considered indecent exposure in 25 states including the Carolinas."
From the article - correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't NIP legal in all states. This sounds as though there are 11 states in which nursing in public is illegal , and as though it's considered indecent exposure in 25 states. So it's legal but still considered indecent exposure in 14 states?

Just quibbling! But seriously, that's terrible. Let's hope this raises awareness if nothing else. I hope your friend isn't too upset by the whole incident and I wish you lots of luck with your nurse-in.

[ThreeBeans]

I wrote an email. Sometimes I'm sick of being diplomatiic and politic, and I just want to play ping pong with people's heads :

[Mel38]

I e-mailed them too. The mall management should take a stand in supporting this mother's right to breastfeed - not protect the security guard who was in the wrong here.

In my e-mail, I just mentioned that requesting that moms breastfeed in a separate, private room is only supporting the notion that breastfeeding is a private, immodest thing to do. It is doing a disservice to moms and moms-to-be (and their children, of course) in the community. Normalizing breastfeeding means greater health for the general community!

Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

[Hokulele]

I am just so angry about this. Your poor friend. How is she doing?

I've sent an email expressing my anger. I wondered about that article - people were gawking etc? I've NEVER seen that, in all my experience nursing in public. I thought that sounded shady. Even if there WERE people gawking the security guard should have kicked THEM out for harassement, not bothered the mother.

ARRGH! Things like this make me so MAD. What is wrong with our society that a mother can't use her breasts for what they were made for????

[Earthy Mama]

I asked her-as I arrived after she was done nursing. She said NO ONE was gawking. She heard NO ONE make comments. She also said she can handle hearing the occasional off comment or someone looking a little longer than needed better than what she went through. If the security guard was truly trying to "help", she should have confronted the people that were supposedly gawking and whatnot and left T. alone.

[AutumnNoelle]

I just sent my complaint!

[Can Dance]

that manager was so full of b s : talk about trying to cover your back side. I hope everyone else recognised his lies.

[2goingon2]

That riled me enough to send an email to the mall. So glad the mom was able to tell her story. And what a normal, beautiful sight: the nursing babe in her arms.

[imagine21]

I emailed as well. No apology? I am shocked. Clearly, a formal complaint should be filed against that individual security guard.

[Emmeline II]

I sent an e-mail.

[KirstenMary]

Talk about arse-covering. I am furious for her.

[FREEmom1120]

The mall managers comments (lies) were the worst to me. Protecting her? Yeah, because nursing moms are always so infuriated and embarrassed when people try to protect their right to nurse. Anyone with half a brain can see he is just trying to cover up what really happened instead of giving an apology.

to the news for showing the mom nursing on TV.

It'd be nice if some eyewitnesses would step forward and confirm her story.

[tootersmom]

Originally Posted by FREEmom1120

to the news for showing the mom nursing on TV.

I was just going to post the same thing! As disgusted as I am by the mall's actions, at least something good came of it. A big kudos to channel 7 (and your friend) for the nursing footage!

[hollyvangogh]

Originally Posted by ThreeBeans

I wrote an email. Sometimes I'm sick of being diplomatiic and politic, and I just want to play ping pong with people's heads :

[HarperRose]

I don't usually do letter-writing, but today I did.

"I just read a news report regarding a mother breastfeeding her young child at your facility. The news report stated the following: Ron Thomas says the female security officers was just trying to protect the mother and child. "People were walking by stopping, gawking, and staring. Her intent was to be there for the safe guard of the mother and to urge people to move on by," he said.

"I take issue with that. In all of my years of breastfeeding my children, not once have I ever come across people stopping and staring or gawking. It sounds to me like the security officer got her shorts in a wad and just couldn't accept the fact that the child was hungry and was eating in the way God intended. I also think that maybe the security guard needs to get therapy if she can't handle the fact that babies and mothers were designed to breastfeed.

"Stop allowing harassment of nursing mothers. Just because there's a nursing room does not mean we are required to use them. Additionally, if YOU wouldn't eat in the bathroom, why should an infant?"

[karina5]

I complained. What a bunch of jerks.

[New_Natural_Mom]

I emailed!

[haydensmommy08]

Thank you for the support!

Thank you all so much for the support. I am the one that was harassed by the security guard. All in all it has been very humiliating but I know that if I want to educate I need to get the word out.
It scares me to think about how many people went through this before I was strong enough to stick up for myself and breastfeeding moms.
I've never had the cops called on me, much less needed back up so this is a whole new experience of somebody 'trying to help.'
I go to talk to Ron Thomas (the GM of the mall) tonight @ 6:30 so I will try my best to keep everybody posted.
He told us that he is planning a public apology on the news? I don't trust him though. I want an apology for him saying that I "over-reacted" and him to take responsibility for his employees over-reacting and being rude. I want him to compensate for the public humiliation, all my time, gas, the dinner that was ruined, and most importantly the fact that his employee violated my rights and my child's! I would also like for the security guard that refused to apologize to apologize to my face. Hopefully we can also discuss a breastfeeding awareness day at the mall!
I am getting calls from friends that work at the mall and they are like what was the big deal, she was just trying to help. So the story is getting out at the mall but is full of lies. We all need to change that.
I'd like to say thank you again to everybody. This just shows that one person really can make a difference and I hope that all of our efforts will bring breastfeeding to people's attention!