Pathetic blowback from Brownback, school on student's tweet
Yael T. AbouhalkahShawnee Mission East senior Emma Sullivan had the right to tweet that Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback “sucked.” But it was impolite and childish.
However, rather than ignore the tweet, the governor’s staff proved that, indeed, they suck at public relations as well as trying to be the adults in a situation where there’s no real winner.
The staff felt compelled, after seeing Sullivan’s tweet, to whine about it to the group that sent Sullivan to Topeka to meet with Brownback.
Now Sullivan is being pressured by SM East to write an insincere “apology” letter to Brownback.
What a gigantic waste of time and money by the governor’s staff.
It’s yet another black eye for Brownback and the state of Kansas.
Even while some support the move against Sullivan, the reaction from the governor’s office was so far over the top that any good they were trying to do will get lost in the shuffle.
And make no mistake:
Brownback’s staff was trying to send a message to all those who rely on him to get money for schools or for their own pet projects in Topeka.
That message is pretty simple: We’re watching everything you say and do, and if you say or do something we don’t like, we’ll come down hard on you.
That message, of course, isn’t necessarily anything untoward or new for politicians. They’ve always watched the media to see what their friends and enemies are saying about them.
In this case, the governor’s staff showed it can use its considerable reach to punish a high school student for speaking her mind.
They must feel so good about it.
Google+
Share
Tweet
Mark Hastert
5 months, 3 weeks agoIt’s good to see the scarce resources of the great state of Kansas put to such good use.
Yael T. Abouhalkah
5 months, 3 weeks agoClearly, there is no punishment by the school if the governor’s office does not alert the organizers of the event about the tweet.
Dan Ryan
5 months, 3 weeks agoYael would rather pile on an inept politician than use care in his language or logic. We’ve seen this behavior before.
Bob Stewart
5 months, 3 weeks agoKevin, I have overheard quite a few students in my classroom say equally impolite (and worse) comments about President Obama. Is it your opinion that I should have contacted the school administration regarding these students’ comments that I overheard? Is it your opinion that I should contact the administration every time I hear a student express their political opinion in an impolite, yet harmless manner? Would you be comfortable if a government official contacted your employer if that government official was offended by a post you made on your own personal social media site?
Blaine Campbell
5 months, 3 weeks agoThis is much bigger than a high-schooler learning about decorum; it is about government eavesdropping on citizens and using the power of government to punish criticisim. I’m old enough to remember Nixon’s enemies list and the KGB. Gov. Brownback can not send me to Siberia or haave my Principal punish me for this post but will he audit my taxes, inflate the tax value of my house or have the KHP stop me whenever I leave my home? This story is about misuse of governmental authority.
Bob Stewart
5 months, 3 weeks agoAnonymous person, do you know how public a public school is? This young woman had fewer Twitter followers than the number of students in my classroom. And, since when has the First Amendment been nullified in the realm of social network speech? Please explain to all of us the difference between oral and social network speech!
So, you consider the home to be the only acceptable place to voice one’s political opinions? Wow! What if this young woman was perfectly polite, but still expressed the same general sentiment (perhaps something like “Brownback is a poor governor”)? Would this tweet be acceptable to you? Or should no one be allowed to express any political views when attending a government sponsored function?
Bob Stewart
5 months, 3 weeks agoKevin, if the governor didn’t expect a punishment to be given, why did his people even say anything about the tweet? Do you call the police without the expectation of the criminal being punished in some way? You can parse words all you want, but it is clear that the governor was wanting this young woman’s critical views to be rebuked in some way. That is what is so deplorable.
Wanda Round
5 months, 3 weeks ago“…That message is pretty simple: We’re watching everything you say and do, and if you say or do something we don’t like, we’ll come down hard on you.”
Tyrants rarely condone dissent.
Michael Stone
5 months, 3 weeks agoCoward: Kansas Gov Brownback bullies teen after critical tweet - #HeBlowsALot http://www.examiner.com/democrat-in-national/kansas-gov-brownback-bullies-teen-after-critical-tweet-heblowsalot
Lisa Smith Coleman
5 months, 3 weeks agoMaybe she should have a detention for using her cell phone during a school field trip. That’s about it as far as the school’s involvement.
If she’d committed a crime during the field trip, what would the principal’s responsibility be then?
Bob Stewart
5 months, 3 weeks agoKevin, you still haven’t answered my question! If the governor (and his people) did not expect a consequence, what was their rationale for even mentioning the tweet in the first place? Please explain this!
Bob Stewart
5 months, 3 weeks agoJohn,
What exactly was a lie? And you’re comfortable with the government patrolling citizen’s social media posts, finding “offenders” and “schooling” these people on common sense and manners? Talk about government intrusion!
Mark Hastert
5 months, 3 weeks agoBig Brownie is watching……and reading these posts. He’ll come out with a statement next week that is was all the work of an overzealous junior level staffer to whom he has reached out and counseled… a mere misunderstanding.
I have no doubt that if some of our colleagues employers, pastors, or family were contacted by the staff of a high ranking government official about what was deemed unflattering or inappropriate content of some of their posts it would absolutely raise hackles and rightly so. Their protestations to the contrary aren’t fooling anybody.
Tom Ryan
Crossroads, Kansas City
5 months, 3 weeks ago…figured we’d get some great mileage on this… :-)
Adriaan de Leeuw
5 months, 3 weeks agoThe Young Lady has First Amendment rights to free speach and these are not extinguishable by the Governor of Kansas OR the School Authorities, she is also in fact 18 years old and entitled to vote, she can also Picket the Governor’s office saying that “He Sucks” Me personally As she got into trouble for something as silly as this which has brought HER reputation into disrepute I would consider suing the Governors Staff member who is wasting Tax payers Money looking for such tweets and also the Governor and the School for breaching her first amendment rights to free speach, it isnt as if she cried fire in a theatre is it.
OR MAYBE SHE DID! the fire being just how far the Office of the Governor will go to make sure he isnt criticised at taxpayers expense.
Bob Stewart
5 months, 3 weeks agoCome on John, do you really want the government trolling through people’s social media posts looking for lies?!? Most everyone would be forced to write a letter of apology! That’s a little too Orwellian for my taste.
Duh, I’m well aware that our government monitors for illegal activity. But that’s just the point. Nothing this young adult said could even be construed as illegal. Rude, perhaps, but not illegal. Do you really want the government trolling through social media posts calling people out for rudeness?!? Again, way too Orwellian.
“Whether I’m comfortable with it or not doesn’t matter. It is already happening.” Whether you and Brownback are comfortable with it or not, people tweet impolite, childish things. It’s already happening. Get over it.
Ray Cyst
5 months, 3 weeks agoKevin is truly scary.
Adriaan de Leeuw
5 months, 3 weeks agoCannot wait to here what Jay Leno and the other comedians are going to say about the thin skinned Governor of Kansas. He is lucky he isnt in the Northern Territory of Australia’s Newspaper the “Northern Territory News” he would cop a lot worse than the young girl said. and they publish such comments verbatum!
Kevin Kelly
5 months, 3 weeks agoYael, quite unlike the Congressman who yelled “You lie” during the State of the Union address, Sullivan apparently did nothing more impolite than tweet during a rather routine pep talk about government from the governor. At least there are no reports of her doing anything to disrupt his talk, and you can bet that if there were 120 teens in the room, at least a dozen were texting their friends or tweeting at the same time. And I would also guess that her tweet took no more than 30 seconds for her to compose and send.
Kevin Copehagen: Follow the chain of events here. What exactly was the governor’s spokesman after when she personally contacted the Youth In Government program? If she intended nothing to happen to the girl, then why go to all that bother to track her down?
Here’s the thing: Had the governor’s people just blown it off like they should have, nobody would have known about this incident except Sullivan’s 60 Twitter followers. And now, Brownback is a national laughing stock.
Kevin Kelly
5 months, 3 weeks agoMark Hastert: That is exactly what will happen, only it will come about five days too late and serve to keep the story alive. That’s the level of ineptness we are talking about.
Brownback should have issued the statement you described about five minutes after The Wichita Eagle broke this story.
Pappy Jeanneret
5 months, 3 weeks agoThe state of Kansas really failed here. This could have been handled with a lot more efficiency if they had partnered with Kansas City officials. Obviously they should have hired a private investigator to follow this young lady around. Find out where she sleeps, who her friends are, where she keeps her clothes. Clearly not enough money has been spent on this fiasco.
Kevin Kelly
5 months, 3 weeks agoNice answer, Gropinghagen. But what exactly do you think the governor’s spokesman was after when she personally contacted the Youth in Government program concerning Sullivan’s tweet?
You think they wanted to look her up to send her a thank-you card?
Rithvik Mogali
5 months, 3 weeks agoInstead of forcing an apology letter, the governor’s staff should find out why the student said something like that. Obviously, the politician isn’t satisfying her needs and the staff needs to hear her. Very poorly played response from the governor’s office.
Rick Segreda
5 months, 3 weeks agoIf this isn’t a blatant display of “Big Government” and it’s hostility to “personal freedom,” I don’t know what is — but wait, because a REPUBLICAN politician is doing it, conservatives will argue it is okay.
Timothy Vaughn Kemp
5 months, 3 weeks agoI want politicians as well as others to read the comments I leave them on their social media pages. When I insult them, I tag them, post it on their pages or e-mail their offices directly. Some delete my comments, like Jan Brewer did when I posted the facts of Arizona being ranked 50th in education among the states. Others, like Tom Udall have created polls and addressed issues, such as campaign finance.
The fact that democrats have listened to my concerns and addressed them, while republicans have not, does not make me a democrat as some republicans have claimed. It is just facts of my dealings with politicians.
The student here did not direct her statement to the governor, nor was he tagged or linked to the comment as an invitation for him to take notice. so I do see a search and intrusion violation here. There had to of been a lot of tracking and surveillance going on in order for that comment to have even been noticed by his staff.
Regardless of my experience or views, Republicans and Democrats alike are both guilty of defending and covering up wrongs of their party members for the sole reason of membership. That seems to be what membership is all about, they are like gangs.
It appears, this student has fell prey to the battle of terms “liberal” and “conservative.” Her commitments, though her right to say, have no productivity what so ever that I can see, other than bashing someone else with the intent of making herself look good.
When people dissolve their loyalty to partisan and live by oaths of individual beliefs is when this country will come together as a country of people instead of a game of pawns.
Scott Gregory
5 months, 3 weeks ago@ Anonymous - Way to show the courage of your convictions (under cover of ananymity.)