Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) to get up in arms over a teenager’s disparaging tweet.
First, a little context: Emma Sullivan, an 18-year-old high school senior, wrote a disparaging tweet about Brownback, saying “he sucked in person,” and signed it with a #heblowsalot hash-tag.
Brownback’s office wasn’t too pleased with the tweet, and it eventually landed Sullivan in the principal’s office.
Sullivan was supposed to write a letter of apology — which she said would be insincere — but the school district has let her off the hook. Now Brownback is the one apologizing. He released the following statement:
“My staff over-reacted to this tweet, and for that I apologize. Freedom of speech is among our most treasured freedoms. I enjoyed speaking to the more than 100 students who participated in the Youth in Government Program at the Kansas Capitol. They are our future. I also want to thank the thousands of Kansas educators who remind us daily of our liberties, as well as the values of civility and decorum. Again, I apologize for our over-reaction”
h/t The Ticket.
David Taintor
David Taintor is the Front Page Editor at TPM, where he contributes to TPM's Livewire coverage, among other areas. David is from Chanhassen, Minnesota, where, yes, it gets very cold. Reach him at taintor [at] talkingpointsmemo.com
ironhead83 Thanks for this. E-mailed Dr. Johnson.
Brownbeck appears to be a petty dsepot...come to think of it....that describes all the right wingers..... perfectly
Republican trying to strong arm high school seniors that will be next years voters didn't go over to well I see.
Hank10303 Can they think that far ahead?
Oh his STAFF overeacted to the tweet, not Brownback himself? They acted all of their own accord?
Suuuure they did. It's great you chose to prove the teen right about you.
Cthulhu And, as of this morning his office is stonewalling on the issue of illegal use of state personel for political harrassment? He has thrown his two staffers under the bus but refused to fire them for illegal use of state funds for political monitoring and politcal harrassment of citizens on state paid time. He wants this to just go away and his office is flatly refusing to answer any questions on who did the monitoring and how it was paid for. Can you say "Twittergate"?
This man is not fit for public office. He's everything Emma says he is plus a scumbag, an idiot and a non-reader. According to Brownback, coals burns more efficiently than books, but he's willing to try both. -- RWJ
Too bad Carry Nation's not around anymore.
I'd like to say his response is evolving, but seeing as Brownback's involved, I'd have to say the response is being intelligently designed.
According to the AP story linked here, Gov. Brownback never apologized to the student. He issued a public statement, but never contacted Emma Sullivan directly. She heard about the statement in the news. Also, the school district issued a public statement that they were not requiring Sullivan to write an apology, but apparently forgot to tell her about that.
mark.sieving IOW: #theystillblowalot
Only in America (and maybe North Korea or Iran).
"...the thousands of Kansas educators who remind us daily of our liberties..." clearly does not include this principal, who needs to be FIRED.
Brownback
verb
1. To obsessively monitor tweets of high school girls in order make sure they are not saying anything mean about you.
2. To spray Santorum on unsuspecting stomach sleeper.
Nice response written by Brownback's staffer. Of course, Brownback himself is still a soggy douchebag.
Good response, but it sure took a while. I wonder if they had to do some polling to figure out how to handle this.
Maybe It sounded like the polling went to Brownback's office in the form of negative emails and phone calls.
boyoboy Maybe Have you called 1-765-296-3232 and asked for the
Governor to appoint and independent counsel to investigate the illegal use of state funds for political harrassment and an attempt to violate Emma's civil rights (this would be an illegal use of State funds in Kansas?), to fire his communications director (whom he threw under the bus, but didn't fire for this illegal act?), and to ask for his resignation (if he authorized these illegal actions?).
I'm sure they'd like to hear from you, too?
I just want to know who gets paid to monitor twitter. That seems like some waisted tax money.
Yes, the principal should have told Brownback's office that if the Guv didn't like the tweet, he could go pound sand.
Yes, the girl was brave to stand up to them, even though her tweet was completely innane.
But the thing that's struck me the most about this story has been repeatedly seeing Brownback's official photo and wondering every time - this is the LEAST creepy photo he could take?!
atlasshirked Apparently it's his best shot. A creep is creep no matter how a creep looks at a camera.
alleyhopperatlasshirked True, he does kinda always look like he's got the Wicked Witch of the West's broomstick shoved in a very (un?)comfortable place
JraSquaredalleyhopperatlasshirked Is this the year of the gold tie, or what?
I think the name of the principal needs to be given out. That is one person who really screwed up.
First, by not telling the politicians to piss up a rope.
Second, by having Ms. Sullivan in the office for an hour. Any response by the principal should have been a 5 minute affair to check that the story was correct. It would also be appropriate to have short discussion about representing the school during a field trip. The main point there should be that the language used should have been cleaner, i.e. "sucked" doesn't lead to a constructive dialog.
Third, by requiring an apology. That stepped way over the limit of the principal's authority.
They didn't overreact - they reacted like they always do: thin-skinned, touchy and ready to claim offense and retaliate in return. Far as I'm concerned, all Republican politicians and many of their supporters are exactly like this. In this case they were shamed (a little) into seeing how ridiculous their overreaction was, so now they're apologizing - but as usual, they don't mean their apologies either.
Did someone get fired?
Can we have their name so we can mock them on Tweeter?
LOL
Lately, the GOP seems to be in a perpetual state of high school - bullying, gossip and fake intimidation. geesh grow a pair and grow up.
now that wasn't so hard, was it Sammy.
score one for the little people
this is so worrisome with gov't tracks private citizens conversations and then reacts. the principal should be fired for not explaining freedom of speech to the idiot gov't staffers
lamonth If I were the principal I'd have been annoyed that a student had attracted that kind of attention to a field trip, but I'd have been smart enough to keep that annoyance to myself. "What's a Twitter?" Mostly I'd have been irritated that she couldn't come up with anything better than "he sucks" and "he blows."
alekshlamonth She really should make up her mind, though. :-)
The principal over-reacted too. He also needs to apologize.
Tomasino He needs to retire!
I hear Brownbeck's staff #blowsalot
I just want to say that Emma Sullivan is no heroine -- and I don't think she's claiming to be -- and her twitter post to her friends was pretty inane and kinda lame. Not exactly a stunningly incisive political discourse, a noble statement of principle, a high-minded beacon-light of democracy.
And that's part of the point, really. Attempts to go after free speech start with the low-hanging fruit, stuff that is stupid and inane or offensive. To defend free speech you need to defend stuff which is sometimes hard to justify. You don't get ideal cases and you shouldn't want them.
Freedom of speech includes the freedom to be a bubbly, thoughtless, slightly mean show-off teenager screwing around on social media. If it doesn't include that, it's not worth very much.
David Her tweet was idiotic (I assume most tweets are) but I am impressed that she stood her ground. No children have ever tangled with the Republican Party and lived to tell about it.
The twit apologizes to the tweeter.
Now will he apologize for trying to deny access to health care for her low-income "sisters"? Will he apologize for trying to deny her - and every other woman - the right to choose what happens to her own body?
debbiedonothing +1 Classy statement and spot on!
SCOREBOARD!
Good for him. Still a right wing dominionist freakazoid, but he is right to apologize.
frank pentangeli Oh, like he had a choice! And he put it on his staff "over-reacting"! That's not an apology, that's saying, "It was THEIR fault!"
sm0k3onth3wat3r Yes, and that is more than most of these asshats ever do.
frank pentangeli Seriously, how many names do you have? Because every other "good for Brownie" post sounds just like you.
frank pentangelism0k3onth3wat3r at least he did not apologize to "those who may have been offended"
sm0k3onth3wat3rfrank pentangeli I have agree that it was likely the staff that stirred up this mess since I doubt that the gov does any monitoring. But the story broke several days ago and he must have heard about it when it hit the news, so what took him so long to come up with this response?
Wrestling fans, ponder the term "reversal..."
Considering the source (at the risk of illness) that was better than I ever thought Brownback would do, even if he did get a little snarky towards
But as I read it, the School District announced their would be no repercussions not the principal of the school. You might be interested that Shawnee Mission East High School has a web site where bullying can be anonymously reported. It would certainly seem to me that Emma Sullivan is being bullied by Karl Krawitz the school principal. The site is http://www1.smsd.org/bullying/?bc=212 You also might wish to mention to Krawitz's boss Dr. Gene Johnson superintendent of the school district (the email is genejohnson@smsd.org) that he should insists that is management level employees have some awareness of the bill of rights.
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