A Kansas teenager is in trouble after mocking Gov. Sam Brownback during a mock legislative assembly for high school students.She was ordered by the school principal to write a number of letters of apology, including to Brownback, the school’s Youth in Government sponsor, and the district’s social studies coordinator.
Emma Sullivan, a senior at Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, was in Topeka on Monday as part of Kansas Youth in Government, a program for students interested in politics and government.
During the session, in which Brownback addressed the group, Sullivan posted on her personal Twitter page:
“Just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot”
On Tuesday, Sullivan was called to her principal’s office and told that the tweet had been flagged by someone on Brownback’s staff and reported to organizers of the Youth in Government program.
The principal “laid into me about how this was unacceptable and an embarrassment,” Sullivan said. “He said I had created this huge controversy and everyone was up in arms about it … and now he had to do damage control.
Because heavens knows, we don’t want to be teaching our kids that’s it’s good to create huge controversies. Not something that should be done in academic environments.
What is perhaps most amazing, is that the folks monitoring social media in Gov. Brownback’s office sent a screen shot of the tweet to the organizers of the event “so that they were aware what their students were saying in regards to the governor’s appearance.”
“We monitor social media so we can see what Kansans are thinking and saying about the governor and his policies,” Jones-Sontag said.Really? Why?
“We just felt it was appropriate for the organizers to be aware … because of what was said in the tweet.”
I for one will start following Emma Sullivan, @emmakate988. Hope you do, too!
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