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Merged Brownback cries about teen tweet

UnrepentantSinner

A post by Alan Smithee
UnrepentantSinner
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A high school girl sends a disparaging Tweet about Sam Brownback during his appearance and is forced to apologize to him and the school.

I wonder if the staffer responsible for monitoring social media is on the state payroll.
 
Brownback is a fascist toad and so is the idiot principle who put pressure on the student. Neither should ever again be allowed to draw a public paycheck. And if I ever met Brownback, he would think that the tweet was an innocent bird's song compared to the opinions I would express about his worthless ass.
 
Brownback cries about teen tweet.

Link (and no, not all Kansas news sources are this terrible at editing for grammar, but it's the first one I found).

I'm just wondering... does it make sense to anyone for this H.S. student to be disciplined for making a "tweet" that was insulting to Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, and for her to be forced by her principal to write an apology?

Seriously, among other things, she probably didn't think that it would be read by anyone other than her friends. Brownback staffers intercepted the tweet b/c they look for anything containing his name.

What exactly is the teaching point here -- that politicians are wussies that can't stand people talking bad about them? That Big Brother is watching?

I'm not sure whether this belongs in Politics or Education, but I do know that I'm rather embarrassed to live in a state where they elected this idiot.
 
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Apparently the tweet was...

Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot.
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Where exactly is the insult? Saying she "told him he sucked, in person" is a false claim to have insulted him, not actually an insult itself.

The only insult in the comment is the tag #heblowsalot, which seems to be simply a personal opinion about the governor.

Perhaps the apology she writes should be: I'm sorry that Sam Brownback does not believe in the right to free speech.
 
Brian-M said:
Apparently the tweet was...



Where exactly is the insult? Saying she "told him he sucked, in person" is a false claim to have insulted him, not actually an insult itself.
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Actually, it's not quite a false claim, she tweeted shortly after posing a question to Brownback in person about cutting education. I assume this question was somewhat of the aggressive variety, although I don't have a direct quote. As I understand it, Brownback was visiting her school at the time.

Brian-M said:
The only insult in the comment is the tag #heblowsalot, which seems to be simply a personal opinion about the governor.

Perhaps the apology she writes should be: I'm sorry that Sam Brownback does not believe in the right to free speech.
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It would be covered by free speech outside of a classroom type setting. Brownback tattled to the principle on her, however. There's generally a certain lack of free speech in a school setting... even though she is 18, and thus has all the rights of an adult, otherwise.

I'm not sure it should be treated as something that happened in a school, however. Her comments were to the world outside the school, and not particularly relevant to the school setting. I kind of question the jurisdiction here, if the use of the technology is indeed allowed in this setting. I mean, would the principle discipline her if he overheard her tell her mother that Brownback sucks in a phone conversation between classes?
 
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Manopolus said:
Actually, it's not quite a false claim, she tweeted shortly after posing a question to Brownback in person about cutting education. I assume this question was somewhat of the aggressive variety, although I don't have a direct quote. As I understand it, Brownback was visiting her school at the time.
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Presumably that would make the part about mean comments true, but the claim that she told him he sucked, in person would still be false. (Unless she actually did.)

Accurately reporting that she made mean comments towards him is not an insult.

Manopolus said:
There's generally a certain lack of free speech in a school setting...
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Presumably the tweet was not intended to be read by anyone in class while class was in progress. I don't think most people would regard a twitter account as being a school setting.

Manopolus said:
I kind of question the jurisdiction here, if the use of the technology is indeed allowed in this setting.
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If the principle wanted to reprimand her for using twitter in class against school rules (assuming it is against the rules), that would be one thing. But punishing her for the content of the tweet is another.
 
Agreed on all counts.

Oh, here's a slightly better link to the story than the one I originally posted. At least there aren't so many editing errors. Apparently it wasn't at the school, as I originally thought, but on some sort of field trip to the capital. This article also seems to disagree as to whether there was any actual direct comments related to the tweet... actually, I might have gotten that impression from discussion on my FB page, not from the press.
 
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While I can understand the Gov having social media scanned for mentions of his name, I can't see how a teen complaining to her friends gets from the Gov's office to the Principal and that the Principal has any reason/right to impose punishment on the student. There's an "air gap" between the Gov and the Principal that shouldn't have been crossed.
 
Upchurch said:
Thanks. The comments section is hilarious!
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I loved the comment section. Especially the suggestion as to exactly how she should phrase her apology letter to Brownstain: (slight rephrase for rule whatever it is) "Devour feces and cease existence!" AND the two item response to "Sam Brownwhatever does suck" involving the mother of the liberal (original item) and the father of the conservative (as a swallower).
 
Kansas teen won't apologize to governor's office for Twitter post

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/28/us/kansas-high-schooler-tweet/index.html?npt=NP1

During a Kansas Youth in Government field trip to the state Capitol on November 21, Sullivan wrote: "Just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot."

The Shawnee Mission East senior said she did not actually talk to Brownback, and the post referenced a joke she had with a student on the trip.

The next day, she was called into the principal's office.

"I had no idea what it was about or why I was being called into the office," she said. "I had never been in trouble before."

A Brownback staffer had notified the principal, she said.

"My principal told me he needed to do damage control and was really upset," Sullivan said. "He said I was an embarrassment to the school and the school district and that I had been disrespectful."

The principal then asked her to write a letter of apology to Brownback and his staff. He set Monday as the due date for the letter.

Sullivan said she did not know what will happen when she does not turn in the letter Monday. But she hopes the tweet will bring attention to the issue of free speech.
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Bizarre. I laughed out loud. Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas 1956 anymore
 
My crystal ball is bringing up an image of Brownback and the doofus principle paying the young lady's way through college, maybe law school.
 
I was expecting some kid to have threatened the Gov, not interference in political speech.
 
I'll write it for her:

Dear Gov. Brownback.
I am so very sorry that you suck.
Yours truly,
Emma
 
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