Sam Brownback, Emma Kate Sullivan and Freedom of Speech
Governor Demands Apology for a High School Student's Tweet
Emma Sullivan is a high school senior in a suburb of Kansas City. Her high school class visited the state capital in Topeka. While there, Emma Sullivan tweeted about Sam Brownback. It wasn't a nice tweet, but it was just going out to a few of her friends. At the time, Emma Sullivan had only a few followers. Here's her tweet
"Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot,"
It's important to note that Ms. Sullivan did not actually say anything to Gov. Brownback. She just tweeted. Gov. Brownback is a public figure, and public figures get nasty tweets sometimes, from people who disagree with them. Gov. Sam Brownback (twitter name @GovSamBrownback) is a polarizing figure and an extree conservative, but that's not the point. Go to any governor's or senator's twitter stream and you'll find all sorts of things.
But Gov. Brownback's office got mad. They didn't think Emma Sullivan should exercise her first amendment rights. The Governor's director of communications, Ms. Sherriene Jones-Sontag (twitter name @Sherriene), objected. Ms. Sullivan got sent to the principal's office, where she was required to make an apology. Emma Sullivan initially agreed to apologize, but is apparently rethinking that, according to KSCW-TV.
Then it gets interesting, because the story went viral. It got picked up by local papers (apparently first by the Kansas City Star), by Daily Kos, by Forbes, by Wonkette and by countless others. Now Emma Sullivan (twitter name @EmmaKate998) has 2700 followers on twitter.
Sources:
Wonkette
Daily Kos
Kansas City Star
KCSW-TV
and the picture of Brownback is from Wikimedia Commons and the United States Congress (Brownback is a former senator).
"Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot,"
It's important to note that Ms. Sullivan did not actually say anything to Gov. Brownback. She just tweeted. Gov. Brownback is a public figure, and public figures get nasty tweets sometimes, from people who disagree with them. Gov. Sam Brownback (twitter name @GovSamBrownback) is a polarizing figure and an extree conservative, but that's not the point. Go to any governor's or senator's twitter stream and you'll find all sorts of things.
But Gov. Brownback's office got mad. They didn't think Emma Sullivan should exercise her first amendment rights. The Governor's director of communications, Ms. Sherriene Jones-Sontag (twitter name @Sherriene), objected. Ms. Sullivan got sent to the principal's office, where she was required to make an apology. Emma Sullivan initially agreed to apologize, but is apparently rethinking that, according to KSCW-TV.
Then it gets interesting, because the story went viral. It got picked up by local papers (apparently first by the Kansas City Star), by Daily Kos, by Forbes, by Wonkette and by countless others. Now Emma Sullivan (twitter name @EmmaKate998) has 2700 followers on twitter.
Sources:
Wonkette
Daily Kos
Kansas City Star
KCSW-TV
and the picture of Brownback is from Wikimedia Commons and the United States Congress (Brownback is a former senator).
Published by Peter Flom
I am a statistician, working with a wide variety of clients, mostly researchers in psychology, education, medicine, social sciences and other fields. I also have given talks and written articles on learning... View profile
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6 Comments
Post a CommentUpdate: the guv' has apologized to her, and the school has said she does not have to write an apology.
I don't think she should apologize. Look how people say stuff about Obama? and other political figures? It's not a crime. I wouldn't apologize.. being forced to apologize would be denying me my rights of free speech.
Mike - Sherriene didn't tweet at all. Her last tweet is from October. The governor's office wrote to Emma's principal demanding that Emma apologize.
...So it's OK for Emma to tweet what she wants, but not for Sherriene to do the same? Sounds like a typical liberal double standard to me. From what you've written, I don't see any evidence that Brownback's office took any action in restraint of free speech here; looks more like Emma's school administrators did that.
I did not vote for Brownback for Senator or Governor of Kansas! It is a sad state when a high school senior can't exercise her freedom of speech in our state of Kansas!
Kansas is in the news a lot for the wrong reasons; it makes it interesting to live here!