A mother from the state of Maine claims she was harassed by a Target employee.
Target was praised a couple of years ago for creating in-store nursing areas that allowed mothers to breastfeed their babies comfortably as they shopped. The store made a public declaration that mothers were welcomed to breastfeed their children publicly and privately anywhere in its store. If you visit Target stores there are signs that reiterate that their stores are breastfeeding friendly. However, for Amber Mason from Maine, she experienced the opposite. In Maine, it is legal for mothers to nurse anywhere that they are allowed to be in public and private.
Mason went to the Bangor, Maine Target and just like most of its stores she saw the sign that clearly stated that mothers are allowed to breastfeed freely in-store. As Mason was shopping she knew it was time to feed her son. Mason opted to find an area out of the way of shoppers to comfort and feed her child. Mason decided to nurse her son in a corner near the clearance section. As Mason nursed her child, a female employee approached her. Initially, the employee was warm with Mason and celebrated her breastfeeding. However, the conversation took an unfortunate turn quickly.
The Target employee proceeded to spew slurs at the Mason by calling her names, such as slut, and told her she was disgusting. The employee also followed up with remarks calling her immoral and accused the mom of breastfeeding her child just for attention. Mason stated that she told the employee that she knew her rights and was allowed to nurse her child in the store and continued to breastfeed her child. The employee then decided to alert a supervisor. Mason didn't know matters would get worse.
When the supervisor arrived, he accused Mason of molesting her child in public. He then proceeded to score her and instructed her to pay for her items immediately and to leave the store. News Center Maine, a local news media, attempted to contact the Bangor Target to speak with the supervisor and employees to interview them on camera but could not reach anyone for a statement.
However, a Target corporate did reach out to the press and released not one but two statements. The first statement was an apology on behalf of Target as a whole and a personal apology to the nursing mother. In the first statement, they reiterated that nursing mothers are more than welcomed to breastfeed their children in Target. They concluded the statement by saying they will do an investigation internally and take the appropriate actions. The second report concluded that Target will do mandatory training to reinforce that nursing mothers are allowed in their stores.
Source: News Center Maine