Posted on 11/25/2011 7:26:01 PM PST by peggybac
A Kansas teenager is in trouble after mocking Gov. Sam Brownback during a mock legislative assembly for high school students.
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansas.com ...
What’s is all this whining of the little Leftist and her right of “free speech”? The state didn’t incarcerate her for it nor is it likely to. I’m unaware the First Amendment covers boorish behavior.
She was at a school function posting BS about her meeting the governor on school time. She should be punished in some way if she can’t handle the responsibility of participating in school activities.
“I’d love to leave comments on Facebook but she doesn’t live far from me and I’d probably have my house egged, or worse!”
Bummer...she needs some comments from us.
Jerks befriended Brownback on Facebook and they’re going nuts on his page. Very rude and inconsiderate.
I cannot believe what FReepers are actually posting! Political speech in a political forum and then some asshole politician pressures a school official to make the gal’s life miserable?
Lucky for you I need to reset the PC because I have several epithets for a lot of posters on this site. Starting with you.
I’m speaking of manners and civility going by the wayside. Don’t know why that upsets you so, but that’s OK.
A list of terms poped into my mind while reading the above excerpt.
Freedom of speach
Thought crime
Censorship
Official oppression
Schools as law enforcement
I’m sure the students have learned a lot of lessons from this incident.
I didn’t say I hate him. I just have problems with senators who switch their illegal pandering votes at the last minute when they realize their side has lost.
Who gives a rodent’s posterior what this smart-a$$ teenager thinks? Apparently Brownback’s office does. It should have just been ignored and dealt with quietly. His office shouldn’t have been complaining.
I agree with you.
"...the tweet had been flagged by someone on Brownback’s staff and reported..."
Sooo, so much for free speech?
Yep. This article is poison. It promotes psychotic behavior while calling it free speech.
We know schools and politicians have their share
of power psychoics.
True children victims of sex abuse by homosexual psychotics in schools should be the focus.
I think the student has the right to say or think what they want about the gov.
That said, it is rude to tweet such things during an event and cause disruption.
Two different things and ideas.
Parents should be in charge of this behavior, but government should not. The state should have no role in a person expressing an opinion about a government official, especially an elected one. However, parents should be able to dictate the behaviors of their minor children as they see fit.
> ... Youth in Government program.
Would that be the Hitler Youth program?
Student government events are very selective and hard to get into. Which means that this girl's presence was at the expense of many of her classmates who couldn't go.
School functions always have a "code of conduct" attached. Students are expected to be respectful and appropriate. They don't have to agree, but they do have to disagree in a respectful and appropriate manner (are we not trying to inculcate maturity in schools?).
This girl tweeted that she told a member of government that he "sucked" to his face at this school-sponsored event. Now, I don't know how many of you think "You suck!" is a respectful and appropriate form of disapproval (but if so, please go back to watching the Jersey Shore and sucking off the government teat... the rest of this discussion is for the adults in the room).
The girl was rightly called on the carpet for her manner of speaking. The student should not have expressed her disapproval in a manner that would put her and her fellow students in a bad light (would you be defending her if she flicked him off and urinated on his foot, too?), and she certainly should not have published that fact in order to draw attention to it.
This has nothing to do with her opinion, and everything to with her choice to voice her opinion in a rude way during a forum where her participation was a privilege in the first place.
What was your opinion of a congressman shouting out “You lie!” during a recent State of the Union address?
THANK YOU! That is why I posted the article. I’m focusing on the behavior and actions of this girl and how few are mentioning it on the websites I’ve visited. I would have been in so much trouble had I done this. It would have appalled and disappointed my parents if I used such language and acted in such a disrespectful way toward an adult.
That’s so gay.
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