Governor Brownback is an insecure douche

[Lord Zentei]

So apparently, if a high school student in the state of Kansas post a tweet disparaging the governor, she can be called to the principal's office to face a lecture and demand that she send a personal letter apologizing to him, due to a staffer in the governor's office calling the principal and making the arrangements for this to happen.

Wow.

To her credit, she is refusing to do so, despite not know what the consequences may be...

(CNN) -- A high school senior, who faces a Monday morning deadline to apologize to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback for a disparaging tweet, has said she will not write the apology letter.

"I don't think I should write the letter, and I don't think it would be the best move for me," Emma Sullivan, 18, said late Sunday night. "At this time, I do not think an apology would be a sincere thing for me to do."

Sullivan said her parents and many of her peers support her decision.

The teen made national headlines last week for a tweet she said was intended just for her friends.

During a Kansas Youth in Government field trip to the state Capitol on November 21, Sullivan wrote: "Just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot."

The Shawnee Mission East senior said she did not actually talk to Brownback, and the post referenced a joke she had with a student on the trip.

The next day, she was called into the principal's office.

"I had no idea what it was about or why I was being called into the office," she said. "I had never been in trouble before."

A Brownback staffer had notified the principal, she said.

"My principal told me he needed to do damage control and was really upset," Sullivan said. "He said I was an embarrassment to the school and the school district and that I had been disrespectful."

The principal then asked her to write a letter of apology to Brownback and his staff. He set Monday as the due date for the letter.

Sullivan said she did not know what will happen when she does not turn in the letter Monday. But she hopes the tweet will bring attention to the issue of free speech.

"I hope there won't be any consequences and that my principal and the governor's office can move on," she said. "The issue is relevant and, if anything, is a starting point of dialog with the governor about his policies and how our First Amendment rights can be taken away."

Sullivan said she has not heard from the governor's office directly. But, following the media attention, her Twitter follower count has rocketed from 65 to more than 4,000 in the last week.

"I hope that the governor realizes the power of the people and how people can make things happen," she said. "I also hope he will spend his time doing more productive things."

[Darth Fanboy]

Go Emma Sullivan.

[Comment removed because an article released within the last hour has made them irrelevant. Brownback has apologized and the school is not imposing any mandatory punishments]

[Darth Fanboy]

The plot thickens..

Tweeting Kansas Teen Gets Apology from Gov. Brownback, Her Following Soars


A Kansas teen who refused to apologize to Gov. Sam Brownback for an insulting tweet got an apology today from the governor himself for his staff’s “over-reaction.”

An unpleasant tweet by Emma Sullivan, 18, was flagged by Brownback’s staff last week. The teen was told by her principal at Shawnee Mission East High School to apologize, but she refused, and the national brouhaha has led to her Twitter following soar from 60 to more than 6,000.

“My staff over-reacted to this tweet, and for that I apologize. Freedom of speech is among our most treasured freedoms,” Brownback said in a statement.

Confronted with a stubborn teenager who insisted on her right to free speech, the school district earlier today dropped its request that Sullivan write an apology and said it will leave that decision up to her. The district also fought back against accusations that it was stifling her freedom of speech.

“The district acknowledges a student’s right to freedom of speech and expression is constitutionally protected. The district has not censored Miss Sullivan nor infringed upon her freedom of speech,” said a statement. “She is not required to write a letter of apology to the Governor. Whether and to whom any apologies are issued will be left to the individuals involved.”

Sullivan had refused to back down, saying over the weekend that an apology would be insincere.

“Emma decided that it wouldn’t be sincere for her to apologize, and she didn’t want to give any more power to the governor,” Sullivan’s sister, Olivia, told ABC News. “If he’s able to control what she says any further, it would be unfortunate that she didn’t get the right to exercise her free speech.”

The trouble for Sullivan began last Monday when she tweeted from a youth event at which Brownback gave a speech.

“Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot,” she tweeted.

Sullivan neither met Brownback in person, nor did she tell him he sucked. The tweet was spurred by a discussion she was having with a friend, talking about what they would tell Brownback if they were to meet him.

“The tweet was for her audience at the time,” said Olivia Sullivan, 19. “It was a complete joke between her and her friends.”

Not so to Brownback’s office. His team, which monitors comments on Facebook and Twitter containing the governor’s name, reported Sullivan’s tweet to Youth in Government, the program’s organizer.

“That wasn’t respectful,” Brownback’s communications director Sherriene Jones-Sontag said. “It was important for the organization to be aware of the comments their students were making.”

The group in turn reported the incident to Sullivan’s high school. Its principal Karl Krawitz scolded Sullivan and said she should write an apology to Brownback, the Youth in Government program and the district’s social studies coordinator, among others.

Krawitz “laid into me about how this was unacceptable and an embarrassment,” Sullivan told The Wichita Eagle. “He said I had created this huge controversy and everyone was up in arms about it … and now he had to do damage control.”

But the teen said she was not sorry.

“I’ve decided not to write the letter but I hope this opens the door for average citizens to voice their opinion & to be heard! #goingstrong,” Sullivan tweeted Sunday.

Sullivan’s family stood behind her decision, and blamed the governor’s office for “wasting their time.”

“My parents, first of all, think it was highly inappropriate for the governor’s office to flag her tweet. It was a misuse of their time and a misuse of their power,” Olivia Sullivan said. “There have been worse things said about Gov. Brownback from people who matter much more politically.”

The spat has made Emma Sullivan a twitter star. She’s received an overwhelming amount of support, says sister Olivia, and her twitter followers have jumped to 6,221 in the past week, nearly double that of Brownback’s. She had only 60 followers last Monday.

The unlikely matchup sparked national debate and heated criticism.

“Speaking as a taxpayer in Kansas, I’m more than a little annoyed that my government has cut funding for the arts and other programs, but apparently thinks it’s a good use of taxpayer dollars to have the governor’s office troll the Twitter feeds of high school kids to make sure they’re not saying anything mean about him,” wrote Alex Knapp, social media editor at Forbes. “I’m also annoyed that the schools think it’s a good use of taxpayer dollars to punish students for what they say on their private Twitter feeds. The whole exercise is absurd.”

Liberals accused Brownback’s team and the principal for stifling free speech.

“It’s troubling that Brownback’s staff is so thin skinned that they felt the need to call down the government’s wrath on a high school student who had the audacity to criticize the governor,” reads a blog from ThinkProgress. “There’s no question that the high school principal violated Sullivan’s First Amendment rights. Although public school students’ right to free speech is not unlimited, schools are generally only allowed to discipline students for speech that is disruptive to the school’s learning environment.”

[Phantasee]

I'm fairly certain the governor wouldn't have given a shit what the girl said, but his staff are hyper-sensitive fuckwits, the principal is an ass-kissing toad, and both should have to write an apology to the girl for their terrible authoritarian attitudes towards her.

[B5B7]

The principal should tender a resignation letter, and hope that it is refused. If he/she is so sensitive to political minor directives they are unsuitable for such a responsible administrative position. Is there even a chain of command from the governor's office to the school principal, and if there is was it followed? (such as through school superintendant, education administration, etc)

[Tanasinn]

The only reason anyone is apologizing is because they were caught and this was pissing people off.

[Darth Fanboy]

It isn't a chain really. The governor's rep noticed the tweets and probably forwarded the info along to the principal because it was an event where students represented their schools and as the administrator of her school it could be an appropriate communication, this situation not being one of those instances at all.

(Edit: irrelevant comment removed)