Sam Brownback, who sucks,
has now apologized for his staff sucking
Remember
this?
“Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot,” [high school student Emma] Sullivan thumbed from the back of the crowd.
She actually made no such comments. “Joking around,” Sullivan says of the incident.
Brownback’s director of communication wasn’t amused when the tweet was spotted during the routine daily monitoring of comments on Twitter and Facebook mentioning the governor’s name.
It landed the student in heaps of trouble, including a demand from the school principal that she write a letter of apology, and all because Gov. Sam Brownback's staff monitors Twitter and Facebook to check whether or not high school students have said mean things about him. No, seriously. Let's just let that one sink in a bit, yes?
Well, whether it be a somber reflection on First Amendment rights or just the embarrassment of national publicity, all sides are now in agreement: There isn't going to be any apology letter. Sullivan now says she doesn't plan on writing one, and the school is no longer insisting that she do:
A northeast Kansas school district says a high school senior who wrote a disparaging tweet about Gov. Sam Brownback doesn't have to write a letter of apology and won't face any repercussions.
The Shawnee Mission School District says it "acknowledges a student's right to freedom of speech and expression is constitutionally protected."
Hooray! The First Amendment does apply to 18-year-olds! Let it be acknowledged throughout the land that yes, you are able to post joking notes on Twitter about how specific political figures may, in fact, suck.
Oh, but there's more:
In the uproar over a Prairie Village teenager's tweet about Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback during a school trip, it is the governor who is apologizing.
“My staff over-reacted to this tweet, and for that, I apologize. Freedom of speech is among our most treasured freedoms,” said a statement from Brownback's office.
Overreacted, indeed. Ya think?
So let's see. A teenager tweeted that her governor sucks. He does in fact suck, as is evidenced by his staff obsessively compiling an enemies list of teenage girls who don't like him on Twitter. His staff complains, the school principal freaks out, probably correctly figuring that Brownback's office will use it as excuse to cut their pencil budget again, this time down to one pencil per thirty kids, and tells the teenage girl she has to apologize. The wider world finds out about it, floods all parties with messages of support for the teenager in question and suddenly everybody remembers the First Amendment again.
Oh, and it maybe dawns on all involved that the office of the governor getting in a goddamn Twitter fight with an 18-year-old girl makes everybody involved look like pompous, narcissistic jackasses who, in fact, suck.
The school district is now calling this a "teachable moment." I'd say so. It looks like Emma Sullivan is pretty much the only person involved here who got the lesson right the first time.