Security vs. Breastfeeding Mother at a Brad Paisley Concert

When Brad Paisley played the Sleep Train Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, California on Thursday night, Megan Christopherson had tickets for her and her young daughter Ellie as well as pit passes. While she didn't have a ticket for her other daughter (a 4-month-old infant), the baby was strapped into a chest carrier so she didn't need one.

As Megan, Ellie and thousands of fans waited for Brad to take the stage, she was approached by a uniformed officer who asked her to step outside so he could talk to her and she could hear him. The phone video started rolling and the rest of the story unfolded for the world to see.

The officer had been notified by security that a woman with an infant was in the pit. The baby had no hearing protection and the mother was so close to the stage that a crowd surge could have pushed her into the wall, crushing her baby. This is what the officer quite reasonably explained to Christopherson once he got her outside. "Your child doesn’t have hearing protection on. The crowd is going to start surging forward. Where you’re at, your child could get crushed," the officer can be heard telling the mother on the video. "We’re afraid of your child’s eardrums being hurt."

Christopherson was offered two options - she could be seated somewhere safe for the baby or she could get a full refund. She opted for the refund, but rather than admitting that taking a newborn into the pit wasn't her best idea, Megan went on the offensive with various tactics. First she tried the "It was OK before" defense, sharing that she had her infant in the pit during a Tim McGraw concert a couple of weeks earlier and no one made her leave. When that didn't work, she went on the offensive, claiming that it had nothing to do with safety and everything to do with the fact that she had been breastfeeding her baby. On the video, you can hear her saying, "I would like proof that it's illegal and nearly child endangerment and that it's going to hurt her eardrums. She's sleeping contently. Do you know that the security guards asked me to stop breastfeeding my child due to complaints?" Again, no dice so she started demanding badge numbers and the name of the person at the DA's office that had said it was nearly child endangerment. That one almost backfired on her as another officer told her that if she felt the need to document their information, they would need to document hers, writing up a full report and turning it over to CHP (Child Protective Services).

After 10 minutes, she finally gave up the ghost and left, but not without one parting shot. As the officer who was escorting her out, asked, "Do you want us to go with you or you can go by yourself?" She responded with, "I think it's really inhumane that you're gonna cart me through the whole entire audience like I'm a criminal."

"It's a country concert," she told ABC 10 the next day. "I wasn't at a death metal or a rap concert. It's pretty somber at country concerts."

Pretty somber at country concerts? Really? The video below, taken during one of Brad's concerts, shows a crowd that is anything but somber! (Also be sure to note just how loud it is and the guy who filmed it was nowhere near the pit!)

San Diego's NBC 7 spoke with Christopherson on Friday as well, and she maintains that breastfeeding was the issue at the concert. “I’m shocked. I’m disgusted at our society that women are shamed into nursing in bathrooms or their cars or feeding their baby a bottle only, because they’re scared to nurse in public,” she said.

Christopherson believes officers removed her for breastfeeding in public but "covered it up" by claiming it was due to the safety of her baby. “It was completely a cop-out. They’re trying to cover this up because they know they legally can’t remove me for nursing."

She said that her maternal instincts were good enough to keep her baby safe. "I trust my motherly instinct that if my baby’s ears hurt, she would cry, and then I would move. She was sleeping contently."

Since attending concerts seems to be something the 30-year-old likes to do frequently (and who can blame her?), perhaps she should read up on noise induced hearing loss for not only herself, but also for her kids.

According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, "Loud noise can be very damaging to hearing. Both the level of noise and the length of time you listen to the noise can put you at risk for noise-induced hearing loss. Noise levels are measured in decibels, or dB for short. The higher the decibel level, the louder the noise. Sounds that are louder than 85 dB can cause permanent hearing loss. The hearing system can be injured not only by a loud blast or explosion but also by prolonged exposure to high noise levels."

According to Sound Advice, a site "produced by a working group of industry stakeholders with support from the Health and Safety Executive" that "provides practical guidance on the control of noise in music and entertainment" which is of interest to "musicians, performers, entertainers and their employers, and others including venue owners, venue designers, promoters, producers, technical staff, safety representatives and self-employed people," the "Noise Risk Assessment" for pit staff is 85 - 100 dB with peaks of 122/146 at an outdoor concert.

Note: As a music journalist for the past 11 years, I have personally attended more concerts than I could list here. I am always close to the stage and have photographers in the photo pit at the very foot of the stage. The one thing we always have on hand? Ear plugs! It only took one concert without them (and hearing crickets for two full days) to figure out how important hearing protection is at live shows. The music is always loud enough to hear it perfectly, even with ear plugs in.

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Brad Paisley