Last week, high-school senior Emma Sullivan was ordered by her school to apologize to Kansas governor Sam Brownback after Brownback’s office complained about a disparaging tweet she had written about him. Sullivan rightly refused, and now Brownback is the one apologizing for his staff’s bizarre response to a random teen’s unflattering tweet: >
“My staff overreacted to this tweet, and for that I apologize,” Brownback said in a Monday statement emailed to The Associated Press. “Freedom of speech is among our most treasured freedoms.”
The school has backed down as well:
“[D]istrict officials” in Shawnee Mission reviewed the case and asserted Monday that no apology was required and that no “further action” is expected on the issue.
“The district acknowledges a student’s right to freedom of speech and expression is constitutionally protected,” the district said in its statement. “The district has not censored Miss Sullivan nor infringed upon her freedom a speech.”
