Kansas teen won't apologize to governor's office for Twitter post

[not_my_kids]

If I have even one of my kids that have this much in the way of guts, I'll consider myself a successful parent. The only thing that would make me prouder as a parent is if she actually did tell him in person that he sucked. We have a right to express ourselves as we see fit, and not to be told to write fake letters of apology for it. And if one of my kids were told to write that fake apology, I would fully support them in not doing it. Who cares if she was an ambassador of the school at the time, ambassadors are allowed to have opinions too. Yeah, the way she chose to express it might have been low class, but she still had the guts to do it, and the guts to stand by it afterward. I don't feel she needs to learn a single lesson from this, I think she's already learned all the right ones.

 

[Chewy]

If I have even one of my kids that have this much in the way of guts, I'll consider myself a successful parent. The only thing that would make me prouder as a parent is if she actually did tell him in person that he sucked. We have a right to express ourselves as we see fit, and not to be told to write fake letters of apology for it. And if one of my kids were told to write that fake apology, I would fully support them in not doing it. Who cares if she was an ambassador of the school at the time, ambassadors are allowed to have opinions too. Yeah, the way she chose to express it might have been low class, but she still had the guts to do it, and the guts to stand by it afterward. I don't feel she needs to learn a single lesson from this, I think she's already learned all the right ones.

Even though I obviously don't agree with most of your post, I do agree mostly with this last part.

This is really all there was to it to me, that she stood her ground and didn't back down.

This issue has nothing to do with constitutional rights but everything IMO to do with not letting the school force her to do something. I really don't think the Governor had a clue about this but that the school overreacted.

So I do agree that she learned a great lesson about standing her ground.

Well written too btw! :twocents::twocents:

 

[TrackerSam]

I doubt we'll ever know if the Governor actually knew about it before it hit the media. But let's be honest, it certainly wouldn't be the first time an elected official let his staff take the fall to save face if he did know and was, in fact, the one to demand an apology.

Unbelievable that any politician or their staff would get all wee wee'd up about the comments of a highschool kid not old enough to vote. :crazy:

 

[Kimberlyd125]

Unbelievable that any politician or their staff would get all wee wee'd up about the comments of a highschool kid not old enough to vote. :crazy:

Not much to do with their time I guess.

I find the way they acted so out of line.

 

[not_my_kids]

Unbelievable that any politician or their staff would get all wee wee'd up about the comments of a highschool kid not old enough to vote. :crazy:

the newer articles all say that governor feels the same way, actually. He has apologized for his office overreacting to the statements, and he doesn't seem to horribly offended about it himself.

What apparently happened was that person on his staff who has the job of screening Twitter, saw the post, called the school, and let into them, and they in turn let into the student. In other words, from what I can tell, the governor himself didn't even know about until he started getting the backlash. In a way, I'm starting to feel bad for him too, but only on this particular issue.

 

[Chewy]

the newer articles all say that governor feels the same way, actually. He has apologized for his office overreacting to the statements, and he doesn't seem to horribly offended about it himself.

What apparently happened was that person on his staff who has the job of screening Twitter, saw the post, called the school, and let into them, and they in turn let into the student. In other words, from what I can tell, the governor himself didn't even know about until he started getting the backlash. In a way, I'm starting to feel bad for him too, but only on this particular issue.

Nice to see people thinking clearly! :great:

I do kind of feel bad for the guy as well, even though I don't particularly know who he is. It was very strange that this got turned into a "freedom of speech" issue and a Constitutional violation when nothing could be further from the truth.

Then to have all these accusations made about him, when it was likely that he didn't even know what was going on.:waitasec: Really speaks to the mob mentality that happens online these days.

People hear a rumor and suddenly it's 100 percent true.

 

[MarthaM]

This girl was just interviewed on WGN radio out of Chicago. My original opinion on this, that she didn't owe the governor an apology but she did owe an apology to the school and her parents, is still what I think. She said that she sent her tweet while the governor was speaking and taking questions from the students. As I said before, she should not have been on her phone during this event. She should have been paying attention and learning something, perhaps asking a question herself. But then, she also said that the other students were asking lightweight questions and that if she had asked a question they wouldn't have understood it. Hearing her say that was a real turn-off from me, suggesting that she feels 'above' her fellow students. I sure don't get that impression from the immature quality of that tweet!

I think the school should have used the times on her tweet and others' tweets who tweeted during the governor's speech/Q&A and disciplined them for using their cell phones instead of paying attention--if her school has a policy against cell phone use.

 

[TrackerSam]

the newer articles all say that governor feels the same way, actually. He has apologized for his office overreacting to the statements, and he doesn't seem to horribly offended about it himself.

What apparently happened was that person on his staff who has the job of screening Twitter, saw the post, called the school, and let into them, and they in turn let into the student. In other words, from what I can tell, the governor himself didn't even know about until he started getting the backlash. In a way, I'm starting to feel bad for him too, but only on this particular issue.

Except it was a person on HIS staff. He should have made it clear what the job of Twitter Screener required. He should have been notified before the school was notified. This is how HIS staff reacts. The buck stops with him.

 

[Chewy]

Except it was a person on HIS staff. He should have made it clear what the job of Twitter Screener required. He should have been notified before the school was notified. This is how HIS staff reacts. The buck stops with him.

Are you serious? Do you honestly even think this old Governor knows what twitter is all about? Governors delegate responsibility and so I'm sure he didn't personally have anything to do with it. But he did take responsibility and apologized to the teen. He settled it down. So what's the problem?

:waitasec:

 

[TrackerSam]

Are you serious? Do you honestly even think this old Governor knows what twitter is all about? Governors delegate responsibility and so I'm sure he didn't personally have anything to do with it. But he did take responsibility and apologized to the teen. He settled it down. So what's the problem?

:waitasec:

No problem. She was right and he was wrong and he admitted it. I'm sure he knows about Twitter. What does' his age matter? What he doesn't know, apparently, is his staff.

 

[Chewy]

What I mean is that his twitter manager manages the account. That's her job. She's not going to run to him with all this information, she'll handle it which she thought she did.

The school should have simply told the girl "You know when you posted that his office found out and it was rude and didn't represent the school very well. It would be nice if you took it down, but if not please try to keep in mind that you'd be surprised who can see what you post online."

End of story. The Governor didn't do anything wrong. In fact he acted pretty classy about the whole thing if you ask me.

IMO

 

[not_my_kids]

Are you serious? Do you honestly even think this old Governor knows what twitter is all about? Governors delegate responsibility and so I'm sure he didn't personally have anything to do with it. But he did take responsibility and apologized to the teen. He settled it down. So what's the problem?

:waitasec:

This, at least, we can agree on. THe way I see it, a worker for the governor, who presumably has a mind of their own, decided, without the governor's input, that they were going to get all riled up and raise Cain. And that's what they did. Apparently, they didn't realize that the governor himself didn't consider it that big a deal. It sort of strikes me like a lose-lose for the governor, because if he delegates the Twitter screening, he has to take the risk of something like this happening. If he does it himself, everyone would be screaming about the waste of tax dollars for the governor to be spending his time on Twitter, instead of governing. He did his part, he basically said, sorry, it never should have been such a big deal. Really, there's no harm, no foul here, except maybe he needs to re-evaluate the person that holds that position, and possibly the school needs to re-evaluate how they intend to handle future situations like this.

And I will say, the one area that the student was completely wrong in, IMO, was that she never should have been on her cell at that time anyway. Field trip or not, it was still a school function, and there's no room for Twitter in school. Other than that, I do support her, but I also think that it should be a non-issue at this point, following the governor basically saying that it is a non-issue to him. JMO.

 

[reportertype]

Did you read any of the information? They didn't need to figure out what school she attended. She was on a field trip sponsored by the school and the Governor took time out of his day to meet with the students and deliver a speech.

Yes, I read it. Thanks for asking. His staff still had to figure out who generated the tweet, unless they knew who she was upfront, which I highly doubt.

His staff totally screwed this up by overreacting.

 

[angelmom]

This girl was just interviewed on WGN radio out of Chicago. My original opinion on this, that she didn't owe the governor an apology but she did owe an apology to the school and her parents, is still what I think. She said that she sent her tweet while the governor was speaking and taking questions from the students. As I said before, she should not have been on her phone during this event. She should have been paying attention and learning something, perhaps asking a question herself. But then, she also said that the other students were asking lightweight questions and that if she had asked a question they wouldn't have understood it. Hearing her say that was a real turn-off from me, suggesting that she feels 'above' her fellow students. I sure don't get that impression from the immature quality of that tweet!

I think the school should have used the times on her tweet and others' tweets who tweeted during the governor's speech/Q&A and disciplined them for using their cell phones instead of paying attention--if her school has a policy against cell phone use.

While I personally agree that she shouldn't have been on her phone during this school function, part of the nature of twitter is to communicate DURING an event. My cousin belongs to a church that is...I'm not sure the word. One of the newer, modern, non-denominational churches that utilizes technology to a great extreme. While I would never take my phone out in church, their church encourages tweeting during the sermon as part of the conversation and spreading the word. I also know that at a LOT of conventions, conferences, etc. people live tweet with special hashtags during the speeches, etc. It is encouraged. In fact, here is an article about the benefits of having a giant screen in the conference showing the twitter feed! A relevant and interesting point on the "con" list:

2. Negative comments about the speaker or panelists

Most reports seem to be that people are courteous about what they tweet if they know it’s going to be displayed on a large screen. But there’s still a risk of this happening – and it’s something to accept.

Again, I think this goes back to the twitter culture. People who don't use it and are thinking about this the way we were raised (it is rude b/c it appears you aren't paying attention) have a hard time. People who use this as part of their daily life and younger people see it as a compliment. (They see it as being "engaged" instead of passively listening; if enough people are using the same hashtag at the same time, it can become a trending topic; it's good PR, etc.).

Members of congress have been known to tweet during a presidential address, and there are even tips on how to live tweet an event effectively.

“One of the most valuable things about social media is that rather than guess the questions that Americans have about something as important as President Obama’s plan to create jobs now, social media allows us to hear immediately from people about what they don’t understand, what they don’t agree on and what they want to know more about,” said Macon Phillips, director of digital strategy at the White House. “That allows us to answer those questions in real time, which is what tonight’s event after the speech is all about.”

On Friday, the White House is hosting another tweetup so that people will be able to ask more questions about the jobs speech from the press secretary, Jay Carney.

Theatres are now reserving special "tweet seats" so they can live tweet shows without disrupting others.

"Coast to coast, theaters are experimenting with how to use 'Tweet seats' effectively," he said. "The arts are evolving right now, they are participatory. … Social media is a tool we rely on, and we have been unafraid to experiment with it."

Goodspeed Opera House's public relations manager Elisa Hale moderated the conversation from backstage during Hello! My Baby.

"This is sort of an enhancement … because there is a way to interact during the show and in a way that traditionally we haven't," she said.

Hale says there were "no negative comments" from patrons about the tweet seats, located in the back row of the theater to avoid disrupting other patrons.

For an example of using twitter for good, read here: http://shankman.com/the-best-customer-service-story-ever-told-starring-mortons-steakhouse/

 

[Chewy]

Interesting but completely irrelevant. She wasn't at that type of function. Twittering wasn't "encouraged" at this event. So why bring it up?

 

[Kimberlyd125]

Thanks for bringing it up angelmom.

I found it very interesting.

:smile:

 

[angelmom]

Interesting but completely irrelevant. She wasn't at that type of function. Twittering wasn't "encouraged" at this event. So why bring it up?

My point was that the twitter community doesn't see it as rude to be tweeting while someone is speaking. They take it as a compliment. Including the White House, Congress, and some very "upper class" people, if you will. Theatres, business conferences, churches, etc. Not just trashy teenagers.

 

[MarthaM]

I am avid twitter user myself. And I still don't think it's acceptable for a student to tweet during a school function the way this kid did. She said herself that the tweet in question was a joke--hardly something that can be considered of any value if an argument is going to be made about the value of tweeting during such functions. Had she tweeted something intelligent about the event or an issue that she claims is of vital importance of her, I might feel differently about the poor choice she made here.

For me it still comes down to the school's policy on cell phones and if the students were supposed to be tweeting or texting during the governor's time with them. I have a friend who is a professor, and her students are supposed to tweet during such class-related things, using a specific hashtag so that the whole class can read the tweets. Somehow, I doubt that this was the case here, as #heblowsalot doesn't strike me as a hashtag a teacher would select for an educational experience.

 

[Kimberlyd125]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...ullied-at-school_n_1120862.html?ref=education

Emma Sullivan, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback Tweeter, Bullied At School

Now, it seems the student's troubles are continuing, with Sullivan telling Politico she's being bullied by her classmates in the wake of the incident.

The high school senior, who tweeted that Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback "sucked," initially faced pressure from her principal to apologize to governor. But it was Sullivan who eventually received an apology from Brownback, who said his office "overreacted" to the tweet.

Politico highlighted some examples of the online abuse directed at Sullivan:

"A Twitter hashtag set up against her contains numerous expletives, including one user, @PoundShop_Zoe, who calls her a '' multiple times. 'When Emma Comes back she should be forced to go to north #HopeYourHappy... ,' he writes.

But Sullivan, who attracted a wave of support in the form of more than 12,000 new Twitter followers following incident, says she's taking the bullying in stride.


***Now THESE are the kids everybody should be worried about. Not one who says a gov sucks.

JMO

 

[Chewy]

Wow way to milk every last drop out of this story. I thought "kids just talked this way" and "it's just a word" and "freedom of speech was at stake" etc etc etc. All the excuses she made are coming back to bite her in the butt. Should we make those kids take down the twitters? Should we make them apologize? Hmm. I agree that these kids are wrong, but she's the exact same kind of person only using different words.