A news story this week has taken the challenges facing breastfeeding moms to a whole new level of horrible. A teen security guard named Nick Carrington posted images of women breastfeeding at a Sears department store to his Twitter account, @Flex_To_Death (which has since disappeared). The photos were zoomed-in screenshots from the store's security camera footage.
Although Carrington appears to have deleted his Twitter account, WereParentsBlog.com was able to capture the photos before they were deleted and re-posted them to Twitter, adding black circles for the moms' privacy.
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@sears Posting pics of #breastfeeding moms is NOT ok! What's your action? #searsbfingshaminghttp://t.co/6GU6b5zoOTpic.twitter.com/iEL6nKx6To
— We're Parents (@WereParents) July 21, 2014As if it wasn't hard enough for breastfeeding moms, who are already far too readily shamed for simply trying to nurse their little ones while out and about. As if they weren't already being forced unnecessarily to tiptoe around and breastfeed discreetly (or in bathrooms or cars), so as to avoid being thrown out of a store or harassed in some other way. But now they have to worry about their privacy being totally violated and shamed for nursing in public? So, so wrong.
In the wake of the incident, Sears tweeted:
Sears respects the privacy of all shoppers. This matter is currently under investigation.
And later:
We regret this isolated incident. We have investigated this incident and terminated the associate who was involved.
But with no official statement from the company or involvement from the police, could you blame people for still being bent out of shape? Of course not! This -- or anything of the sort -- is the last thing nursing moms need to worry about.
Clearly, more needs to be done so that absolutely NO doubt remains that what this security guard did -- or any other similar violation of a breastfeeding mom's privacy and rights -- will not be tolerated. Obviously, this should have never happened in the first place, but not taking measures to ensure it never happens again would be utterly unacceptable.
What's your reaction to what this security guard did?
Image via iStock/wrangel