Woman Says She Was Kicked Out of Brad Paisley Concert for Breastfeeding
A woman who attended a Brad Paisley concert in San Diego on Thursday night, after being asked to leave, is now speculating that she was ejected for breastfeeding in the pit area of the concert.
Megan Christopherson filmed her interaction with a Chula Vista police officer but the video has since been deleted. According to USA Today, the police officer asked her to leave because the child could be "crushed from a potential surge from the crowd or could be impacted from loud noise coming from speakers." Christopherson claims that, no, the ejection was because people around her were uncomfortable with her breastfeeding.
"Where you're at, your child could get crushed,'' the officer says. "We're afraid your child's eardrums are being hurt."
But Christopherson argues in the video that the baby, Gracie, who was asleep, was fine and that she had recently taken the infant to another concert at the same venue and had no problems with security. She also tells the officer that she thinks she's being ejected from the area because other security personnel had allegedly told her to stop breastfeeding because people were complaining.
Christopherson's friends have corroborated her story, claiming that police officers were photographing her breastfeeding. The Chula Vista police department, however, has maintained in a statement that "The Chula Vista Police Department's involvement in the incident was due to the welfare and safety of the infant and not due to a mother's legal right to breastfeed in public."
"It's a country concert," she told ABC 10. "I wasn't at a death metal or a rap concert. It's pretty somber at country concerts."
"I trust my motherly instinct that if my baby's ears hurt, she would cry, and then I would move out," she told NBC.
Thank god she wasn't at a death metal or a rap concert. Christopherson is now lawyering up and is expecting a formal apology from the security company.
[Image via AP]