(CNN) -- Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback apologized Monday for what he called his staff's "overreaction" to a disparaging tweet directed at him by a high school senior during a state Capitol visit.
Emma Sullivan, 18, said late Sunday that a Brownback staffer had notified her school's principal about the tweet, and the principal told her she had to write an apology to the governor. On Monday -- the deadline for the letter, according to the teen -- the Shawnee Mission School District issued a statement stating that "she is not required to write a letter of apology to the governor."
This whole story is one giant onion of FAIL. Every time you think you'll pulled off the last pungent layer of FAIL, you find another. First off, the governor's office has nothing better to do than to harass school districts over "tweets" coming from high school kids? Are you freakin' kidding me? Sounds like Brownback needs to fire a bunch of staffers, grow a thicker skin, or maybe get out of politics if he can't stand the heat FROM TEENAGERS.
And then. Holy crap, the school's "response". Telling the girl she's an embarassment to the school? Are you for real? And the response was to demand that she write a letter of apology? Look, this is EXACTLY the sort of thing that the First Amendment was intended to protect. She spoke her mind about a politician. You - as the governing body of her state-sponsored school - have exactly ZERO business disciplining her for speaking her mind. The ACLU should have been salivating to take this case - and I would have supported them for doing so 100%.
Again, because it bears repeating: We need the First Amendment for unpopular speech even more so than for popular. There would have been no story had she tweeted "Just met Gov. Brownback, seems okay" or something like that - ergo, no need to worry about that speech being protected. It's when we dare question our ruling elite that we fully enjoy the protection of our enumerated rights, particularly those encapsulated by the First Amendment. While it's good that no further action was taken, it's infurating to think that some petty tyrant, in response to another petty tyrant, was about to deny this young woman her enumerated rights.
Personally, I think it would be a good sign for Brownback to write her a letter of apology - and have the principal deliver it.
That is all.
4 comments:
I think it would be a good sign for Brownback to write her a letter of apology - and have the principal deliver it.
And then they can both go stand in the corner.
When I saw that in the news I thought if that was my kid there's no way in hell she'd write an apology unless SHE thought it was necessary. I might lecture her for being rude, but that's because it's my job.
Also, the young Lady is 18, a Legal Adult, and the school had better watch out for a Defamation Suit.
Of course, if she said the same thing about Obama, Holder would charge her with Hate Speech....
I'm willing to believe that the Governor had nothing to do with this (ie, that his staff acted autonomously and the first he heard about it was the flap).
And I think he should still write a letter apologizing for his staff's actions (not his, if he didn't take any, but his staff is his responsibility), because It's The Right Thing To Do.
(What grounds would there be for a defamation suit, Les?
Defamation suits require, well, defamation.
Which is, generally speaking, a false statement of harmful imputation, made if not in public than at least to someone other than the target.
Telling her - in the principal's office - that she's "an embarrassment to the school" is not obviously defamation. It's not even very plausibly defamation.
First, it wasn't public or even semi-public.
Second, it's not obviously defamatory, rather than mere abuse - and mere abuse of a very tame nature.)
Not only that, but she never actually tweeted the alleged insults, but merely claimed to have done so. What the hell is the state gov doing monitoring social media sites, anyway?
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