Our Voice
No apology given by high school tweeter
Freedom.
It’s something we have come to expect in America.
Recently, an event in Kansas involving an unflattering tweet about Gov. Sam Brownback by a high school student has brought freedom and the First Amendment into the forefront of media attention.
The First Amendment states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Emma Sullivan, the tweeter, wrote she had made “mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot.”
Sullivan tweeted those words on Nov. 27 while attending a youth in government event in Topeka, Kan.
According to Forbes, Sullivan was pressured to apologize by her high school after the tweet was brought to their attention by Brownback’s communications staff.
This push for an apology was in clear violation of the First Amendment, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the 1969 Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District case.
This case was during the Vietnam War and students decided to wear black armbands to school to protest the war. The school tried to prevent their actions, but the Supreme Court ruled students and teachers do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
Today, schools can only prohibit speech that interferes with the appropriate discipline in the operation of the school.
It is the opinion of The Colonnade, and of the nation, it appears, that Sullivan should not have been asked to apologize.
The school has no legal leg to stand on. This tweet should not have even made national news.
The governor can be upset about the comment privately, but as a politician he should appreciate the first amendment as much, if not more, than the average citizen.
In the apology he made, he echoes the sentiment.
“My staff over-reacted to this tweet, and for that I apologize,” Brownback said in a note on his official Facebook page. “Freedom of speech is among our most treasured freedoms. I enjoyed speaking to the more than 100 students who participated in the Youth in Government Program at the Kansas Capitol. They are our future.”
People say discouraging things about politicians all the time; at least most of them are smart enough not to try and get them deleted and land themselves in the middle of a scandal.
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