CLEVELAND, OH (WCMH) – A Cleveland area historical center has apologized after a worker told a woman to stop breast-feeding in public.

It happened last weekend at the Cleveland History Center and sparked a significant amount of social media backlash.

Emily Locke told WOIO-TV she has always felt comfortable breast-feeding her children, but after the weekend’s incident, she’s concerned about other nursing women.

She said her 9-month-old son got hungry during a photo shoot after a wedding ceremony, so she sat down to feed him.

“The baby needed to eat, so I sat down on a bench,” Locke told the station.

After she started to nurse, two employees asked her to stop. “She just said, ‘You can’t do that here.’ And I said, ‘Actually, legally I can.’ Then she said, ‘I’m just trying to protect the innocent children,'” Locke said.

A post about the experience on Facebook went viral, being shared more than 15,000 times.

The Western Reserve Historical Society issued an apology a short time later.

The human resources department is also addressing the employees involved. Locke says these are all steps in the right direction toward making nursing mothers feel more comfortable.

“The way that people act towards nursing mothers, the looks, the response, that has an impact,” Locke said.What others are clicking on: