I know we have talked about this before, but I am still stunned by the fact that Sam Brownback’s staff tried to get a kid in trouble for tweeting about him.
Don’t these people have anything more important to do than send kids to the principal’s office for disagreeing with them? What is wrong with these people? And what the hell is wrong with the Principal of this school that he followed through? If I were a school principal and some jackass approached me with this, I’d fire off a letter to the Brownback office letting them know that some idiot is out there pretending to be a member of his staff and doing really stupid things like trying to get a kid in trouble for what she said on twitter.
She’s not backing down, so I guess the ball is in the Principal’s court. As usual, all the adults in this have failed, but the kids are alright.
*** Update ***
arguingwithsignposts
Are you familiar with any principals? They are (mostly) type-A assholes who couldn’t handle the classroom. ditto superintendents.
cathyx
Children need to be taught to never go against the system. They are making her an example.
Gin & Tonic
All the adults have backed down. Brownback apologized, and the school rediscovered the First Amendment (in a statement written by their lawyers.)
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
Really, John. At this point, you should really stop being surprised at this shit. Mortified and appalled, but never surprised.
JPL
Good for her. Brownback expected 24/7 good news and why not because that is what they are used to.. She stood up to the bullies and won. How proud her folks must be.
Gin & Tonic
@arguingwithsignposts: How true. The several people I know (personally, not professionally) who are high school principals are all petty authoritarians, who get more so the longer they serve.
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
Today Brownback offered a sorta apology: “My staff over-reacted to this tweet, and for that I apologize.”
That sickening crunchy/splatty sound is the good gubbinor throwing his media communications director under the bus. That’s gotta leave a mark! (But really, she deserved it.)
Principal Krawitz is probably just self-aware enough to wonder who’s balloon knot a fella has to french to come out appearing to be on the right side of matters, but not self-aware enough to know he’s the one who really owes the student an apology.
Josie
Arguingwithsignposts is right. I worked in the public schools for thirty years, and worked with many wonderful teachers, but I only worked for one principal that I actually respected. Unfortunately he was only with us for a few years as he got promoted out of the schools and into a Regional Education Office. I’m glad that young lady called them on their bullshit.
Brachiator
Some conservatives are equisitively attuned to disturbances in the Force. This frequently happens when children, women, nonwhites and the under class are not sufficiently deferential to perceived authority. Many of these goons love to assert that school kids have few constitutional rights, except maybe the right to bear arms, but certainly no free speech rights.
Good to see that here, apparently, the bonehead adults backed down.
Sad_Dem
Isn’t Brownback a member of the Family and maybe Opus Dei? This shows what he thinks America should be like. It would be funny if it weren’t so scary. So let’s just keep reminding everyone that he brought the powers of his office to bear on a teenager for saying he sucked.
jrg
I guess the GOP figures if you can’t balance the budget, and you can’t get Bin Laden, the next best thing is to go after a high school senior. Low hangin’ fruit, bitches!
Steve
I am not surprised at all that a school principal chose to take the easy way out. School administration isn’t a line of work that typically rewards bold stands on principle, no matter what they show in the movies. I really respect the kid that refused to be bullied into an apology here.
scav
OT FYI alert for any Pratchett fans in need of a break: BBC Radio 4e is running a dramaticization of his Night Watch this week.
Cheryl from Maryland
I listened to an interview with the student on CNN. She was great. When asked about “disrespectful language,” she said that since she wasn’t a pundit or public person, and thought only her friends would read her tweets, she used language appropriate to her peers. Otherwise, she explained, they would have turned her out. She left the talking hair with nothing to say.
Brownback’s walk back is sweet.
Montysano
We seem, as a culture, to have lost the ability to simply stop for a second and think a few moves ahead. I guess that’s the price you pay for keeping that Twitter thang fed and happy.
Violet
When this story first broke the girl was quoted as saying she was going to write the letter of apology and it was indicated that if she didn’t she might get an unwelcome letter attached to her college applications.
After all this brouhaha, she ought to be eligible for some kind of first amendment scholarship for college.
sb
True story; originally, I put this on TBogg but I’m glad to share with my other favorite blog.
Four years ago, one of my students sent an e-mail to Governor Schwarzenegger on the school computer: “Dear Gov. Schwarzenegger, you suck!” I got an email back informing me that a student sent the email on my school computer “in case you wanted to meet with the student.”
Damn right, I met with the student. I told her how embarrassed I was and how disappointed I was in her. “A whole semester of utilizing logos, ethos and pathos in your papers and all you could come up with is ‘you suck?’ You couldn’t do better than that?” Meeting adjourned.
She still sends me Christmas cards. Cool kid.
Gex
And the only reason they’ll admit that there’s a First Amendment is so they don’t quash their own goals to get explicit prayer back into schools.
cinesimon
What I find even more bizarre about this incident, is that so many of my(our?) ideological allies actually believe that Brownback is sincere in his apology and deserves some credit for it.
I mean, when will we ever learn!.
He created the authoritarian culture in his team – for anyone paying attention, it’s an inherent part of right wing ideals, albeit cloaked in a weird combination of feel-good cliches and bizarre fear tactics my formerly naive self believed only a child would find credible.
I believe the only reason he’s apologizing(In true right wing style: of course his staff were in the wrong & overreacted, surprise surprise) is to get ahead of the citizenry who voted for him from discovering the man they voted for – and finding out what his base ideals really are. No way does he want that. I’m sure if he felt it would make a difference, he’d fire his entire staff in order to keep the public from knowing what he truly wishes for America. By total coincidence of course, the replacement staff would share those same values. But that’s right wing thinking: re-branding is all they need do to keep their base in line after a snafu…
KG
@Violet: that’s my favorite part “do as I say or I’ll fuck up your entire future because you said something bad about me”
I give up… when’s the next flight to Fiji and how much for a visa?
brantl
I’m proud of that kid, and her parents. She probably learned her civics lessons at home, though. (What the hell is wrong with Kansas, anyway? Every stupid idea seems to go there when they should die, and thrive there.)
cinesimon
Gex – yeah and they still think the first amendment means the right to be free from criticism by protesters! I saw a Fox News segment I thought was quite the blast from the past: they complaining that OWS didn’t believe in free speech, because their reporter was shouted down(“FOX LIES!”) when he was trying to report from an protest. Plenty of Yes-men & Yes-women handy, all saying(and I;m sure they came to their conclusions independently) the same thing: ‘they claim they have a first amendment right to protest(“claim”!), but they don’t want to give us the right to report our take on it’. Just BIZARRE.
I can’t believe how many millions actually follow and vote for these childish plonkers.
Mayken
@sb: I wish I’d had high school teachers like you! That is made from awesome!
dollared
@KG: Fiji: not a great choice for a fan of constitutional democracy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Fijian_coup_d'%C3%A9tat
dollared
John, this kid is all right, but the key is to intimidate the 5,000 children of schoolteachers and other public employees, or children of private sector union members, who might point out that the emperor has no clothes.
So it turned into a public brouhaha? Mission accomplished !
gelfling545
@arguingwithsignposts: Who would require a change of undergarments if contacted by the governor’s office.
RossInDetroit
Regarding principals, I think it’s a mixed bag. In the last 3 years I’ve worked under 6 of them, two in large high schools. Of the half dozen, only 1 was a complete ass about discipline. Four were actually cool people with great relationships with the kids and the remaining one ran hot/cold.
Rigid clampdowns on speech like this usually happen when the principal feels like everything else is out of their control. If you looked closely into that district you’d probably find a pretty tense and ragged place.
greylocks
It’s wired into the wingnut brain that when they don’t like someone says, instead of engaging in rational discussion (e.g., “What is it about my boss that makes you think he sucks?”) they retaliate, or try to. This partly their authoritarian instinct, and partly the result of being unable to defend their ideology in the face of facts and reason.
Global warming deniers are a textbook example. Their position is completely indefensible on any grounds, so they resort to attacking the credentials and integrity of climate scientists.
MazeDancer
Sorry, can’t find an open thread. And this is sorta about deluded, thin skinned Repubs.
A woman named – not kidding – Ginger White just told Fox News Atlanta that she had a 13 YEAR affair with Herman Cain. Unknown if she now gets a Fox gig.
Here’s Reuters via NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/11/28/us/news-us-usa-campaign-cain.html?_r=1&hp
Liberty60
Well, Sam Brownback was talking to the other kids in the quad and said he was going to throw a party and like, totally not invite this girl. Then Kortney said she had a fat ass and everybody laughed except that new kid.
dollared
Oh yeah, and one more thing: Maybe Sam Brownback’s problem is that with all the gentlemanly decorum in the Senate, Patty Murray never once called Sam a “corrupt, authoritarian, misogynistic asshole.” Perhaps this whole governor’s gig, where you actually have management responsbilities and you can’t spend all of your time collecting money from ADM and Cargill and Boeing, is stressing him ou.
RossInDetroit
@MazeDancer:
The Cain thing. They’re screwing this up from step one, first denying any relationship, then:
So no relationship, and besides it was consensual and private. This is so Fail I almost want it to stop.
Cacti
What I want to know is, who on Brownback’s staff trolls Twitter to check for comments about him, and do they draw a public salary?
Villago Delenda Est
@Montysano:
The short term mentality rules all. Thinking things a few moves out is the sign of being some sort of poindexter type, incredibly uncool.
Note what happened to Eric Shinseki when he pointed out to a congressional committee that, sure, we can overwhelm the Iraqis with shock and awe, but we’re going to need hundreds of thousands of additional troops to make the occupation work.
He thought the thing through. von Rumsfailed fired him for it.
harlana
@RossInDetroit: it’s like watching a clown moped go down in flames in slo-mo
Villago Delenda Est
@RossInDetroit:
Cain is so not ready to be a major party candidate for President if he can’t keep his talking points from contradicting themselves from one to the other.
Of course, this same flaw doesn’t seem to have damaged Ovenmitt that much, at least with the lickspittles of the Village…
If someone from the Clinton White House had said this in 1998, they’d have been savaged by the Village.
Jeffro
@RossInDetroit: Thank you for speaking up. I doubt Arguing, G&T, Josie, etc, would put up with such ridiculous generalizations about their entire professions, especially ones based on reports about one bad (one weak?) apple.
But then I always was a little naive…
MazeDancer
@RossInDetroit:
The range of what’s “okay” behavior for Repubs is absurd. Silly Gov can scream at a child exercising freedom of speech. And a potential Presidential candidate can cheat on his wife as long as the mistress consents. Guess that consensual thing is so much better than just groping them without permission.
Gretchen
My kids went to this high school. Brownback has been cutting, cutting, cutting since he became governor, including from the schools. The principal probably doesn’t want to be at the top of the next “what to cut” list. That was one of the objections this young lady had: that he entirely defunded the arts, among other things. Plenty of money to pay someone to troll Twitter for unflattering tweets, though.
Frankensteinbeck
@cinesimon: and @Gex:
(As I pontificate frequently) This discussion of free speech and other rights and how conservatives treat them has to be seen through the lens of narcissism (and tribalism, a slightly extended version). From that viewpoint, it’s impossible to take away someone else’s right to free speech. That right doesn’t exist. It’s not just that they don’t deserve free speech, rights are by definition that the tribe has. The concept that rights could allow anything counter to the tribe (or narcissist)’s interests is nonsensical.
Let me try to put it in terms that might resonate as how they see an issue. You can’t claim human rights if you’re not human.
jefft252
@cinesimon:
“…is that so many of my(our?) ideological allies actually believe that Brownback is sincere in his apology and deserves some credit for it”
He tried to force an insincere apology out of a teenager. He ended up apologizing.
The fact that his apology is insincere is even better – it means he was forced to do it
lamh35
OT, but Now this is just ridiculous…LOL! I don’t care how much you like Obama, this is too much. Besides, isn’t there there some law against using and or distorting the President’s voice in any way without consent from the WH?
Barack Obama GPS Voice
Linda
Excuse me, but did you note a great disturbance in the universe? This sounds like SOP Republican BS, but he ended up apologizing. Which they never do.
I think between this, and the snarky Georgia judge who ruled against US Bank, and Occupy Wall Street, and the protests in Wisconsin and last month’s elections in Ohio, we are reaching a watershed moment when America collectively decided we were sick of right wing shit. It may not be uniform right now, but we are seeing the start of a mighty flood. Way overdue.
Omnes Omnibus
@Linda: I hope you are right.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Linda: Peak Wingnut? The mystical moment, come at last? When we’ll collectively shake our heads, and engage in productive discourse, abandoning partisan propaganda, and demonizing our opponents at every opportunity?
Nah.
David Koch
@Villago Delenda Est: I was watching CNN tonight and the all the talking heads said this a personal matter that should be left alone.
While that’s correct position, they never feel that way when a Democrats fucks up. Just a couple a months ago, CNN lead the feeding frenzy on Wienergate.
geg6
jefft252 @41:
I agree. I hope he was choking as he issued that statement. I hope the principal choked on his, too. Good thing that terrific girl is graduating or he’d make her life miserable. She really is awesome.
area man
@scav:
I done delurked after lo these many moons to say thank you for that heads up. Much appreciated.
As far as the topic, Brownback’s staff has time for these ludicrously petty vendettas because the nice thing about governing as a Republican is you don’t have to spend much time on all that tiresome governing. Just stand athwart history and yell ‘stop’ first thing in the morning and then you’ve the rest of the day free for bullying a teenage girl, wetsuit shopping or what have you.
WereBear (itouch)
@Linda: Just tonight, discussing how it’s healthy when a body runs a fever. We’ve tolerated this infection too long.
David Koch
Q. What does Naomi Wolf and hedge fund billionaire Stephen Schwarzman have in common?
A. They both say Obama is just like Hitler.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/what_the_heil_AB2P3PQKS6F8lPAlW1evIN
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/crying-wolf
Jay in Oregon
@MazeDancer:
The only thing that would have made this story better is if the woman’s first name was Lily.
Chet
@ brantl – She is, indeed, fortunate to have such supportive parents. Had something like this happened to me in high school, I suspect the response of my own parents (whom I love dearly and who were/are basically apolitical but, like a lot of working-class Midwesterners, mildly and pragmatically authoritarian-conservative in their instincts: don’t make waves, do as you’re told, etc.) would have been to ream me out for having posted the offensive tweet in the first place, then counsel me to write the letter of apology or whatever Brownback’s people or the principal or whoever demanded.
Studly Pantload, Boy King of Ubekibekibekistanstan
@Cacti: Brownback’s Communications Director, one Sherriene Jones-Sontag, has been doing that monitoring. (Her hubby’s a big wig with the Kansas’ Americans for Prosperity presence.) I’m sure it just takes a handful of minutes to do each day. Well, before all this brouha started, anyhoo. But they do seem to have given up on keeping his name pure for now. His FB page – which she is a credited co-owner of – has been awash in ribbing and criticism since at least Friday.
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
@Jay in Oregon: Ha!
G
there are two somewhat correct ways to handle it as Brownback
the first is to ignore it.
the second is to invite her and her parents and siblings to dinner at the governor’s residence and be a polite and charming host.
And trying to force an apology out of her might het you something like ”I’m sorry the governor is a thin-skinned twit”
Ben Cisco (mobile)
Democratic politicians have to deal with armed dissent; this mook can’t handle a comment on the Twitterz. What a hump!
Enlightened Liberal
Yea but what kind of countertops does she have?
arguingwithsignposts
@Jeffro:
I have dealt with numerous principals and superintendents (true, they were in Texas mostly) enough to know that it was more than one bad apple, tyvm.
Does that spoil the whole bunch? no, no it doesn’t. but I’m prepared to take that fall.
Soonergrunt
OT–Occupy OKC people at Kerr Park, OKC are reporting that eviction is imminent. I drove past the Bricktown police station earlier, and SWAT/SRT vehicles are staged forward there. Bricktown station is about a three minute drive from Kerr park.
I don’t know what to make of this because we hadn’t had any difficulties getting permits issued and renewed until yesterday.
I just got off the phone with a couple of the campers. The day shift captain from the Bricktown station addressed the GA a couple of days ago and told them that with the construction and demolition work going on across the street–this is true, one hi rise being renovated, one next to that being demolished–that those sites had reached a point where they had to have the whole area cleared. Then yesterday, the OCPD told them that they could stay in the lower park and clear out of the upper park and they’ed be OK. This morning, a Sergeant from Bricktown station told them they had to leave the park and that they would not be allowed to move to another park.
They set up a meeting with the Police Chief for 8:30 AM tomorrow morning, but they’ve noted that the Police, who normally have had two cars parked in the alley south of the park haven’t had a presence all day.
They’ve had good relations with the OCPD from the beginning, but it appears that a decision was made on high to remove them. Some campers have left, but through the day more and more people have been showing up as word got out, and a caravan from Norman had just got there at 9:30, raising their number to over 40.
The last thing they heard was that they would be evicted at 11:00 tonight. Since they heard that, they managed to arrange the meeting with the Chief for the morning, so I am hoping that nothing will happen until after that.
ETA–no sooner did I hit the button, then I got a text that police are lining up on the south side of the park.
General Stuck
Was a regular commenter at JG for a few months before finding BJ. I ain’t been right in the head since, but it was fun nevertheless.
David Koch
Wow. The student is a stunning beauty.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/emma-sullivan-high-school-student-refuses-apologize-gov-tweet-article-1.983204
Brains and beauty. A future MSNBC host.
Sly
SATSQs:
No. They’re Republicans. They don’t believe in governance, they believe in power.
They’re chickenshit assholes.
Also a chickenshit asshole.
PanurgeATL
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:
Getting sick of wingnut shit doesn’t require Peak Wingnut. It only requires Intense Enough and/or Long Enough Wingnut. This is, in fact, Second Peak Wingnut, the first peak having been reached in the early Cold War era (up to the Vietnam War). Heck, I thought it was yesterday’s thing in the ’70s–seeing it now is just beyond bizarre, but it’s the logical conclusion to the Age of Reagan.
suzanne
I’m kinda jealous of this girl. I shouted about how Governor Brewer is an idiot and an asshole on her Facebook page, and I just got banned from it. I would have LOVED to have some authoritarian fuckwit attempt to get me to apologize. Oh, I really don’t think I would have been able to get over the hilariousness of that…
JWL
The principal in Kansas reminds me of the principal of a school my friend’s kid attended when he was 7 or 8 years old. Patrick speared a dead gopher with a stick on the playground, and naturally began chasing the little girls around waving it at them. Mayhem ensued, as you can imagine. The principal then called Mom, and rather than treat it as typical behavior for a boy his age, with a request she gently reinforce a message that it was unacceptable behavior at school, came on very, very seriously. The conversation was lengthy and gloomy. In other words, that principal was a horses ass, too.
RossInDetroit
I’m somewhat sympathetic toward high school principals. Despite stringent measures to prevent senior pranks here’s a short list of what we had to clean up out of the hallways one day in June:
Burst bags of flour
Silly String
Shaving cream
Baking powder
300 live crickets.
And they called the cops and locked down the parking lot or there would have been a food/water balloon fight of epic proportions.
So I get why some people end up being a little edgy.
debbie
And yet not a peep out of conservatives about that UT who tweeted and asked her pals not to shoot Obama so he could be the worst president in history.
kay
I don’t even think it’s bullying. It’s just embarrassing, for Brownback.
How paranoid is he, exactly? Does he watch everyone in that state?
Ugh, and those staffers who do the work for him. You just imagine 25 year old zombie True Believers, hunched over a monitor, looking for his name.
kay
@Studly Pantload, Boy King of Ubekibekibekistanstan:
A person or persons could have a lot of fun with it, now that they know they’re watching. Just drive them absolutely crazy with his name, everywhere. Add his name to anything remotely negative.
Cat Lady
@kay:
Great idea – like frothy mix Santorum, except two wetsuits and dildo Brownback. Monitor this Sherriene Jones-Sontag.
donquijoterocket
Almost as disturbing as the actions of the governor’s office were the number of commenters who said in effect she deserves everything that happens to her because she offended someone in power, and was rude and disrespectful to her elders to boot.
These are the sorts of people Daniel Jonah Goldhagen was referring to the ones who’d tell those displaced Israelites to get in that Zyklon- B shower because a person of authority wearing a uniform with the Hakenkreuz told you to.
Too many of those sorts in this country right now and the Republicans and wingnutters of all stripes have cultivated them assiduously.
Nemesis
I got into it with my daughters high school principal.
Remember when Pres Obama spoke to the school kids of the US? Remember the rw outrage that a soshulst kenyan usurper was about to try to indoctrinate our kiddies? Our school system decided againt allowing our kids to view the speech. I called the principal of our school and had a decent discussion with him.
Not so on the next issue. A large police presence was brought in to the high school, along with police K-9’s, to “search” all student cars in the parking lot for drugs. My daughter had just recieved a used car for her commute to school. The dogs singled out her car for weed. And the dogs scratched the hell out of the passenger side door. I was furious and had a terrible converstaion with said principal who stood firmly behind the accusation against my daughter. Asshole.
victory
I don’t know why (actually I do, but, indulge me) conservatives are not all over Brownback for this.
I can remember a time when Obama wanted to talk with school children (something other Presidents have done) and conservatives went ape shit over it.
Now….imagine if a student tweeted this (an imagine Twitter held the panache then it does now. Again, indulge me.) about Obama and got the reaction which happened today…..my computer would have EXPLODED!!!!!! from the orgasmic freakout on the right.
But, with this? Nothin.
Hungry Joe
Years ago (never mind how many, as Ishmael would say) my sister was sent home from high school because her skirt was deemed too short. When the principal called my parents in, my father wanted to know why he was hassling a straight-A student.
“Jails are full of straight-A students,” the principal informed him.
That is now, of course, part of family lore, and recited reverently every time anyone mentions that so-and-so’s son or daughter “is a straight-A student.”
Everyone in the Pool
Ironic. A Balloon-Juice post named “Thin Skinned Bullies.”
Pretty much describes this joint.
REN
The General does have a way of putting a fine point on sarcasm. I wouldn’t advise a pissing contest with that one.
I do hope Ms. Jones-Sontag and the Guv continue this crusade, I just can’t imagine anything that could cause the light to shine brighter into the dark corners they maintain so rigorously.