I don’t support government funding for art any more than Brownback does, but as for tweeting, Sullivan owes neither Brownback nor her principal any apology. On the contrary, they owe her one for their wrongly intrusive, restrictive (and oddly creepy) concern with an eighteen-year-old citizen’s use of Twitter.
A U.S. teenager who wrote a disparaging tweet about Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said Sunday that she is rejecting her high school principal’s demand for a written apology.
Emma Sullivan, 18, said she isn’t sorry and doesn’t think such a letter would be sincere.
The Shawnee Mission East senior was taking part in a Youth in Government program last week when she sent out a tweet from the back of a crowd of students listening to Brownback’s greeting. From her cellphone, she thumbed: “Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person (hash)heblowsalot.”
She actually made no such comment and said she was “just joking with friends.” But Brownback’s office, which monitors social media for postings containing the governor’s name, saw Sullivan’s post and contacted the Youth in Government program.
Sullivan received a scolding at school and was ordered to send Brownback an apology letter. She said Prinicipal Karl R. Krawitz even suggested talking points for the letter she was supposed to turn in Monday.
Later in the story, it seems the principal has since recognized the mess into which he’s stepped, and is now insisting this is a ‘private matter.’ It should have been a private matter (without government involvement), but the censorious actions of a publicly-paid governor and a publicly-paid school administrator offer no retreat from widespread and legitimate criticism.
Via NPR.
Update 11.28.11: Gov. Brownback apologizes via Facebook.