sharksareawesome:

tommilsom:

cataquack:

thedailywhat:

Follow Up of the Day: An outpouring of support for a Kansas teen who criticized Gov. Sam Brownback on Twitter, only to have the governor’s office call her school and get her in trouble, has led her to recant an earlier promise to send Gov. Brownback an apology letter.

18-year-old Emma Sullivan of Fairway was ordered by Shawnee Mission East High School to write the letter after the governor’s office called the principal to complain about a tweet Sullivan wrote while attending a speech by Gov. Brownback encouraging students to be active in government.

Sullivan was in Topeka as part of a Youth in Government program.

While she had initially agreed to apologize, a swell of support from strangers, particularly on Twitter, has caused Sullivan to have a change of heart. “I would do it again,” Sullivan says, adding that a “dialogue” about free speech in social media had been “opened up” thanks to her tweet.

She isn’t quite sure what will happen when she formally declines to pen the apology letter, but says she’s received several emails from attorneys.

Though she won’t apologize, Sullivan would take an opportunity to talk to the governor if presented with one. “I think it would be interesting to have a dialogue with him,” she told the Kansas City Star. “I don’t know if he would do it or not though. And I don’t know that he would listen to what I have to say.”

Whatever ends up happening, Sullivan’s mother Julie says she supports her daughter’s actions.

“I raised my kids to be independent,  to be strong, to be free thinkers,” she said. “If she wants to tweet her opinion about Gov. Brownback, I say for her to go for it and I stand totally behind her.”

[kcstar.]

hey uh

if you wanna be a champion for free speech can you say things that aren’t retarded

thanks

and Ai Weiwei is still being watched constantly by the Chinese government

I’m just saying

There are plenty of really good people who we should be using as a poster child for free speech rather than resorting to some girl who said a dumb thing about a dumb politician

just because she’s white, english-speaking and photogenic there I said it

this girl goes to my FUCKING HIGH SCHOOL

this is about MY FUCKING HIGH SCHOOL

AND IT’S ABOUT A FUCKING TWEET

JESUS CHRIST I’M SO JUST BAFFLED BY THIS WHOLE STUPID THING

Is it really horrible how I knew this was Katy’s school before she said it on Tumblr….