Principal didn't require apology from teen tweeter to Brownback
Yael T. AbouhalkahIt turns out one of teen tweeter Emma Sullivan’s original claims - that her principal was forcing her to apologize for an offensive tweet last month about Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback - wasn’t true.
Shawnee Mission East Principal Karl Krawitz says in a blunt email to Brownback’s staff that “The governor should know we did not force any letter of apology.’ (The email is in a report by NBC Action News.)
And Sullivan belatedly this week acknowledged the same thing: No apology was ordered.
Krawitz didn’t help get his side of the story told to the public well at the outset, insisting that the issue was private, not a public matter. By not clearing up this key point right away, that enabled Sullivan’s initial claim to be repeated in articles and opinion pieces here and in media around the country.
The incident began with Sullivan’s infamous tweet about Brownback: “Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot.”
Five days later, In his email to Brownback’s office, Krawitz had some tough things to say about Sullivan and also the governor. And two days later, after a national response to the incident, much of it about the overreaction of Brownback’s staff to the tweet, Brownback actually was the one who properly apologized for what had happened.
The email from Krawitz gives an added dimension to this story. It helps humanize another player in the drama.
“I hope you will share this with the governor. You need to know there are many inaccuracies associated with her story. Since we protect the privacy of kids, I will not comment on specifics of the case except to say there are two sides to the story. This is not about political views or opinions or free speech - it (is) about being respectful as a student while on a school trip. What she does on her time is her business. She was dishonest to her friends when she sent the tweet and who knows why she decided to send it to the governor, but it is disrespectful.
“The governor should know we did not force any letter of apology. There were no threats if she did not – they were not even discussed. We did not take her phone, imposed any sanctions, suspend her from school, removed her from any activity - nothing – simply write a letter of apology. I am not a big fan of the governor, but I respect the person and the office. He may be used to this kind of negative mail (which is disgusting), however I am not. The hate mail I have received is a disgrace. I am not sure what will become of this issue – unfortunately, this will probably get ugly.”
Dan Wood
1 year, 5 months agoExactly what I’ve been saying all along.
David Grim
1 year, 5 months agoThis changes very little. The bottom line is, when Brownback’s staff initially contacted him and asked him to get her to apologize… He. Should. Have. Said. NO. She should never have been approached by Krawitz to begin with. It was a very unwise choice on his part. None of this would have happened, were it not for Krawitz’s poor decision making. And he still has not apologized to her for attempting to impose the governor’s will on her.
James Reinerio
1 year, 5 months agoIt should be noted, as a critical part of this story, is that the teen did not SEND her tweet to the governor or is staff as noted in the story. The comment was picked up by staff who “regularly monitor social media (eavesdropped).” In essence the governor’s office was taking action to have an effect on a teen whose “private” comments with her friends on tweet were not liked by the governor’s office.
David Grim
1 year, 5 months agoCurious that the people here blaming Emma for a mess that the Governor and the principal MANUFACTURED, are doing so anonymously. The people who see this mess for what it actually is, a royal screw-up by the Gvoernor and the principal, have no problem saying so using their real names.
David Grim
1 year, 5 months agoNo, Mr/Ms “not confident enough in my views to share my name” The case SHOULD have been closed when the governor contacted Krawitz. Krawitz didn’t have the balls to tell the governor no, and he doesn’t have the balls to apologize to her now for creating this entire situation.
Kent Mueller
1 year, 5 months agoYael, the real story here is how you and most in the media were bamboozled by a high school senior. You let your political hatred of Brownback and anything conservative to automatically allow you to back the student, rather than to use common sense, hard work or other things of that nature to investigate prior to pronouncing your opinionated judgement.
And when you admit that you fell hook, line and sinker for the lie of a high school senior, you blame the school administrator; not the teen, yourself nor your editors. With privacy being quite important, wouldn’t you agree that a school administrator shouldn’t publicly discuss discipline issues pertaining to a student?
The school administrator had absolutely no responsibility to prevent you from being humiliated by this teenager.
David Grim
1 year, 5 months agoYet another person avoiding the key point. That being, Krawitz had no business calling Emma into his office to begin with.
David Grim
1 year, 5 months agoWhy, Mr/Ms STILL anonymous, should Emma have to “take responsibility” for an action that was not in ANY WAY WRONG? She made a post on her own personal Twitter account, expressing her own personal opinion. Is that illegal now? Were you not posting anonymously, I am certain that we could find opinions expressed by you all over the internet. Would you like to be punished for those opinions? I am certain that the Governor can arrange that. He arranged it with her cowardly principal.
Anne Martin
1 year, 5 months agoIt would be most helpful for everyone to actually read the emails published by NBC Actions News. I do not recall in this story it ever being reported that the Governor contacted the Principal and asked him to have the student apologize…..David can you please cite where you are getting that information from? I’ve actually read the emails published and the only email from a Brownback staffer is to the SM teacher who was in charge of the students on the field trip reporting the tweet to her, as she said “to make her aware”. Then the teacher emails the staffer back apologizing for the behavior, thanking the staffer for the chance to visit, hopes the situation won’t jeopardize future students returning on the field trip (a really great program and privilege) next year etc. When Brownback apologized it was for the staffer supposedly overreacting by reporting the Tweet to the Shawnee Mission SD. We can debate and debate the idea of Brownback’s staff monitoring tweets but having actually taken students on a field trip quite a bit in my career I would want to know if any of them misbehaved while on the privilege of a field trip…it would be my job to make sure they are acting appropriately and not violating any policies my scholl might have about field trip conduct or cell phone use.
Rather than arguing over this situation ask yourself….would you take this student on another field trip if you were a teacher? Would you write her a letter of recommendation for a scholarship, internship or job? Would you want your child rooming with her at college next year?
What she has done will stick with her until she has the sense to realize she made a mistake and make amends for it.
Anne Martin
1 year, 5 months agoThank you anonymous I stand corrected….somewhere in the emails I read an apology by a SMSD official….was it to the YIG coordinator or directly to a Brownback staffer? Thank you for clarifying.
David Grim
1 year, 5 months agoI would love for Ms. Martin, or anyone else for that matter, to tell us all how she can justify calling a twitter post expressing an opinion “misbehavior”. Have we all moved to China when I wasn’t looking?
David Grim
1 year, 5 months ago“The YIG folks felt obligated, as the sponsor, to inform the school to do with as they pleased. The school did as they pleased….which is to say …nothing.”
You are wrong, anonymous one. They called the girl into the principal’s office and chewed her out. Something they had absolutley NO business doing. THAT is where everything went to hell.
David Grim
1 year, 5 months agoI believe that you will find that I just did respond. Using my real name BTW.
Kent Mueller
1 year, 5 months agoDavid, I always use my name, but I guess you haven’t noticed.
What you and so many others have mistakenly done is to confuse this with a freedom of speech issue. It is not. When a student is on school time, and she was, there are restrictions to how free speech can actually be. That is necessarily so. Also, the school not only is under no obligation to discuss internal student disciplinary matters, they most likely are greatly restricted from doing so by law.
Should I put you on the list, that includes Yael, of those who were bamboozled by a teenager? She lied and you bought her lie. Funny, actually.
David Grim
1 year, 5 months agoFACT: The twitter account belongs to Emma and Emma ALONE. Not to the school. It doesn’t matter what time of the day or night she made the post. “School time” or not. That is HER PERSONAL PROPERTY. The school had no business admonishing her for her posting opinions on HER PERSONAL PROPERTY. She didn’t write it on the bathroom wall. She didn’t post in on the school’s marquee sign. HER PROPERTY. Everything else happened as a DIRECT RESULT of that trip to the principal’s office. That’s a FACT. It cannot be disputed or refuted.
Anne Martin
1 year, 5 months agoLike I said David schools have field trip conduct and cell phone use policies. Finally, let’s just say David if she’d tweeted that about a fellow student it could be considered “cyber bullying” under the Kansas bullying law….needless to say it would be a whole different story.
William Re
1 year, 5 months agothe principal should tell emma you no longer get to represent school — no after school things outside of school = ie basket ball team ,band mets , debate , etc
David Grim
1 year, 5 months agoYou are 100% correct. There is a Cyberbullying Law in place. It is a LAW. Please show me the LAW that says she can’t tell people that she thinks the Governor sucks. Show me that law please and I will bow humbly to your argument.
Troy Coverdale
1 year, 5 months agoDavid, you have a wide berth of what you view as what she can do while representing her school at an event. I venture to say that when you were in school, if you made a public proclamation that was disrespectful to an office holder that you would have had a meeting with your principal.
Her Twitter account is an extension of her “voice”. That’s fine. But when representing your school at an event, they have a say in how you present the school’s image. It’s the same principle behind punishing athletes when they misbehave outside of school, i.e. throw big parties, etc.
Anne Martin
1 year, 5 months agoDavid I challenge you….send one of your children on a school field trip….have he or she write a note saying the speaker at the field trip “sucks” then pass the note to another student making sure a teacher supervising the the field trip sees and caonfiscates it. Then report back to us on what happens.
Getting chewed out by the Principal is the biggest complaint you have? Are you a teenager as well? Have we all lost the sense that at times adults need to let kids know when they have done something wrong….seriously?
David Grim
1 year, 5 months agoTroy, I will bet you real money, right now, that if she had made the post from her house at 4:00pm, the call still would have been made. They were searching the internet, looking for people to jack with. They found somebody. The time of day that she made the post makes absolutely NO difference whatsoever. You guys are using insignificant details to try and bail out a very small man who made a very poor choice.
David Grim
1 year, 5 months agoMr/Ms Anonymous. Please show me, on any of the posts I have made here today, where I used the word PRIVACY. I’ll wait.
Troy Coverdale
1 year, 5 months agoDavid, you’re letting your dislike of Brownback cloud the issue. There are plenty of things posted online about the Gov that aren’t followed up upon daily. I venture that if she wasn’t at the event, it wouldn’t have gotten anyone’s attention.
Keep in mind as well: Brownback wasn’t the one monitoring social media. It was an overexuberant employee. Seems to me a brown-noser was out to prove that she was doing her job so well that she over-reacted.
But, I know, it’s just easier to bitch about Brownback because its all you want to do.
David Grim
1 year, 5 months agoYES, Anne! It IS my biggest complaint! Because it started this entire, nationwide furor, and it was totally inappropriate to begin with! NOW you are getting it!
David Grim
1 year, 5 months agoI don’t give a crap about Brownback’s flunkies. I don’t give a crap about Brownback. I’m talking about Krawitz. He. Screwed. Up. BIG.
David Grim
1 year, 5 months agoI am in ARKANSAS. I have no political axe to grind in the state of Kansas. I’m talking about THE PRINCIPAL. You guys are using politics to cloud the issue. She did nothing wrong. She got chewed on by the principal anyway. All hell broke loose after that. This is SUPER easy to follow, people.
David Grim
1 year, 5 months agoWhen Krawitz had this brought to his attention, by WHOMEVER (governor, teacher, circus clown, don’t care) He had a choice.
Choice A: “This is insignificant, not worth talking about. I’m going to let this one go.”
Choice B: “That little brat! I’m gonna give her a piece of my mind!”
He chose B. He chose WRONG. Now look what we have.
SURELY you guys can follow this now. I can’t spell it out any plainer than this. I’m exhausted now!
Kent Mueller
1 year, 5 months agoDavid, you are wrong. It does not matter who’s twitter account was used. That’s a ludicrous point. There are restrictions to freedom of speech when you are on school time. Try disrespecting your employer on your personal twitter account. Same thing. What I am saying has nothing to do with how I feel about what she said, as insolent as it was. But this …oh, it was her own personal twitter account is just a foolish canard. She was on school time. The school is in charge. You have no right, nor standing, to tell the administration when they may speak with a student.
David Grim
1 year, 5 months agoHer parents do, Kent. And they did. And I’m glad they did. He made the wrong choice. Many people understand this. HE probably even knows it. But he’s never going to admit it, because he likes to eat.
I gotta go get my boy from school now. This has been fun. Hope you guys learned something.
JR Beillenhouser
1 year, 5 months agoDavid -
“Hope you guys learned something.”
I learned that either you haven’t read the story or that you cannot comprehend what you have read. Stick to sports reporting, you don’t do well with the common sense stuff.
Here are the facts: (Your hypotheticals are not necessary)
The supreme court has ruled in several court cases that students have restricted freedom of speech.
The student in question sent a text during a school event.
The principal did not require an apology. Furthermore the principal protected her privacy by not disclosing pertinent facts.
The student lied and said that an apology was required.
You now blame the only honorable person in the entire event.
Who’s to blame here? The governor’s staff and the student. Thanks to her lies, the principal has received hate mail and death threats from people who think just like you do. But they were led to a conclusion that an apology was deemed necessary by the principal.
Dan Wood
1 year, 5 months agoFirst of all, Twitter owns Twitter, just like the KC Star owns the website you are posting on right now. As soon as you comment on this forum, you are posting for all the world to see.
Second of all, she was a representative of the Youth in Government program which is sponsored by her school. They have every right to let her know that they didn’t appreciate the way they representative them while on a school sponsored trip.
Third of all, if you do a google search for Shawnee Mission East Newspaper, you’ll see an article written there with quotes from Emma saying it wasn’t a chewing out and that an apology letter was suggested. She had hoped that the principal wouldn’t have any backlash from this, which wasn’t the case. She has apologized to the principal for the backlash from this.
She thought she could say whatever she wanted to while representing the school, which she can. They have the right to let her know they didn’t enjoy the way she represented them, which they did.
Phil Cardarella
1 year, 5 months agoSo, let me get this straight: The Principal called the girl into his office to discuss the tweet, but did not “order” her to apologize?
As if neither he nor the girl were smart enough to catch the implications of his little talk? Do we think he told her he was proud of her little joke? Interestingly, he gave a list of all the things that a student might fear being done in retaliation — if no apology were to be made.
The GOP Congressman who interrupted Obama’s State of the Union Speech was rude and out of line. This kid made a PRIVATE joke to her friends — and Gov. Brownshirt’s Mini-SS swung into action.
The principal felt threatened — and he made the kid feel threatened. He did not have to tell her the consequences she could face if she failed to apologize — just “suggest” that an apology would be “best for all”.
That is — on a small scale — what a police state looks like.
Kent Mueller
1 year, 5 months agoPhil, what part of “twitter” and “private” do you have a hard time understanding. A private joke on twitter quite an oxymoron. Besides, the school has the right to be involved in a student’s communications while the student is on a school activity. That really shouldn’t be that hard to understand.
Anne Martin
1 year, 5 months agoDavid you can’t be serious,
“It IS my biggest complaint! Because it started this entire, nationwide furor,”
The “furor” began because this student and her parents chose to have her do multiple local TV interviews and at least one national morning show appearance. You surely can’t believe her principal can be held accountable for these bad choices.
Dan Hartshorn
1 year, 5 months agoWhat grand farce. All of you libs running around like the Keystone Cops and screaming like little girls: “The First Amendment is being violated! And the principal is a big meanie! Let’s march on Topeka.” What will your rallying cry be? Occupy Topeka? And then we find out she was lying. And you libs bought it - hook, line, and sinker. But what’s pathetic is the witless little girl didn’t even have the character to correct the lie, nor did her witless mother. Oh yeah, these are real credible people - and you libs deserve them. ;-D
Shelly Trewolla
1 year, 5 months agoAs a teacher I have to say that the biggest issue is that kids are so addicted to their cell phones that they cannot separate themselves from their social media. It is school policy that students should not use their cell phones during class. It used to be that they could not use their phones during the school day, but parent concern has caused the schools to amend that policy. The result is that the phone takes precedence over everything. They respond to a text or twitter without thinking, no matter what is being done in class.There is rarely a class period that goes by that I don’t have to tell a student to put his phone away and pay attention. It is a teachable moment that does not present itself to parents at home. If the issue of appropriate phone use is not addressed at school or school activities kids will never have the opportunity to learn. That the student was using her phone when she should have been paying attention to Brownback’s address has been totally overlooked. It doesn’t matter what she said, using her phone when he was speaking was rude all on its own
Cave Man
1 year, 5 months agoSounds like the Shawnee Mission School District Public Relations machine is still hard at work. Read Krawitz’s own words in the Star on 11/24, he called it “disciplinary action”
Mark Hastert
1 year, 5 months agoThis sounds like the Principal is rewriting his own history. The long and short of it was that e and the Governor’s staff should have never gotten involved. As previously noted it was referred by the Principle to as a disciplinary action. Perhaps it was a poor choice of words, perhaps the whole incident is a case of poor judgement on the part of the grown ups.
Anne Martin
1 year, 5 months agoInteresting that Garret Epps has the character to apologize…if only others had the character as well.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/an-apology-to-dr-karl-krawitz-you-didnt-demand-an-apology/249436/
Anne Martin
1 year, 5 months agoMy favorite line from the Atlantic Link, the first one
I owe an apology to principal Karl Krawitz; it turns out he suggested but did not demand an apology letter from Emma Sullivan to Gov. Sam Brownback. Emma Sullivan should not have allowed that impression to remain there—the media had her account of events but not his, as he chose not to comment. We know she knows how to tweet, and a tweet setting the record straight would have been the right thing to do.
Bethany Christian Bethany
1 year, 5 months agoEmmaSullivansMomCollapse Emma was in Dr. K’s office longer than you reported. Dr. K slammed his fist on the desk several times, didn’t let Emma speak and she left their sobbing. Upon my conversation with him personally I was told that Emma will be punished and told that he will be talking to Mr. Tate about taking her off yearbook. Would have been a good idea to get the facts on this from the other side if you want true honesty to prevail in journalism. I wish everyone was more interested in the fact that Gov. Brownback was not tweeted personally, so it was not disrespectful TO him, just ABOUT him. THAT is what the First Amendment is ALL about!!!!!!! SCHOOL NEWSPAPER EMMA’S MOM POSTS - http://smeharbinger.net/?opinion/blogs/team-east..