As Karoli noted, it seems tweeting about Kansas Governor Sam Brownback gets you a trip to the principal's office if the governor's staff happen to be reading your remarks and don't like them. As NBC action news reported earlier last week, eighteen-year-old Emma Sullivan had not yet decided if she was going to issue the requested apology to the governor's office. The good news is, it appears she has now made her decision and the answer is no.
Teen tweeter won't apologize to Kan. governor:
A Kansas teenager who wrote a disparaging tweet about Gov. Sam Brownback said Sunday that she is rejecting her high school principal's demand for a written apology.
Emma Sullivan, 18, of the Kansas City suburb of Fairway, 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 in Topeka, Kan., 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.
The situation exploded after Sullivan's older sister contacted the media. Since then, Sullivan's following on Twitter has grown to about 3,000 people, up from about 65 before the tweet. She said she thinks the tweet has helped "open up dialogue" about free speech in social media..
"I would do it again," she said. Read on...
UPDATED: Wow. Not only did Sullivan not have to apologize, but she got a rather stand up apology from none other than Sam Brownback himself.
Brownback issued a statement attempting to put an end to the media circus.
"My staff over-reacted to this tweet and for that I apologize," Brownback said. "Freedom of speech is among our most treasured freedoms."
