Emma Sullivan, a senior at Shawnee Mission East High School in Kansas, and other students in a Youth in Government program went to Governor Sam Brownback's office in Topeka to learn about government. While on the trip, Sullivan Tweeted “Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot,” the Kansas City Star reports.
Sullivan never actually spoke to the Governor and says she was simply “joking around” to the 65 friends she had as followers at that time. She was unaware that the Governor has a staff person dedicated to monitoring Facebook and Twitter for negative comments, updates or any other posts badmouthing the elected official.
Sherriene Jones-Sontag, director of communication for Brownback, complained that the Tweet “wasn't respectful. In order to really have a constructive dialogue, there has to be mutual respect.” Jones-Sontag then contacted Karl R. Krawitz, the principal of Shawnee Mission East, who saw fit to reprimand Sullivan for an hour on how her remarks embarrassed the school and “damage control” was in order. Sullivan says her principal demanded she write an apology to Brownback, and even offered some talking points.
Initially, Sullivan agreed to write the apology, but said she and her friends “are all liberal, and we are opposed to a lot of his views… I'm just an 18-year-old girl who knows what I believe, and I know what he believes, and we disagree. That is not going to change."
Following the Thanksgiving holiday, Sullivan announced that she changed her mind and would not be writing the apology letter. According to the Associated Press, yesterday she said the letter would be duplicitous as she stands by her opinion, and “would do it again."
Her mother, Julie Sullivan, said she wishes her daughter would have “chosen different words,” but supports her actions regardless, explaining that, “she wasn't speaking to the 3,000 followers she has now… She was talking to 65 friends. And also it's the speech they use today. It's more attention grabbing. I raised my kids to be independent, to be strong, to be free thinkers. If she wants to tweet her opinion about Gov. Brownback, I say for her to go for it and I stand totally behind her."
Sullivan's older sister, 19-year old Olivia, a political science major at Wichita State University, says she was shocked by the incident. “I think it is embarrassing to the governor and to the administration of the school and the school district to waste time and taxpayer money on something so petty,” she noted. “And it's discouraging to children when they are told they can't speak their mind."
Sullivan said that she disagrees with Brownback on political matters, especially his vetoing of the Kansas Art Commission's entire budget. That veto makes Kansas the only state in the country to take away arts funding (anyone else notice the parallel to Jane Lynch's Glee character, Sue Sylvester?). As for conservative Brownback's other politics, he is against homosexuality and abortion. He believes homosexuality is immoral, and has voted against gay rights measures. He has signed into law a number of anti-abortion measures, including a “fetal pain” ban on abortion after 21 weeks of pregnancy, and an attempt to make Kansas the first state without abortion providers (via a law of over 200 specifications that clinics are required to meet - including the size of janitorial closets).
He also spends citizens' tax dollars to make a public issue of an 18-year-old's Tweet to 65 of her friends who follow her on the social networking site.
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