Parents Want Answers About Controversial Tweet

[proud2BlibKansan]

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.–A Kansas teen has received national attention after a tweet about Governor Sam Brownback. Brownback issued a statement saying his office over reacted.

Some parents in the Shawnee Mission School District say they are still angry. Parents showed their support for Emma Sullivan at Monday night’s school board meeting.

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Kathy Cook who is a parent as well as a member of Kansas Families for Education wants to know who demanded an apology from the student.

“We don’t want to stifle our kids political free speech,” Cook said. “Even though it may not be the best choice of words, that’s how kids communicate with each other.”

Cook is worried that educators are being pressure by “heavy handed politicians” and are afraid to lose funding. School board members didn’t respond on the subject because it wasn’t on the agenda. Cook says if she doesn’t get answers she will launch an investigation into emails and phone logs.

more . . . http://fox4kc.com/2011/11/28/parents-want-answers-about-controversial-tweet/

[Skittles]

1. it's a fair question

seriously, this was indeed an attempt to stifle free speech

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. And that parent won't let it go.

She's a tiger :)

[kath]

3. I wonder if any parents are asking for the fascist principal to be fired?

I think Karl Krawitz needs to go. Pronto. He also should be required to attend remedial courses in Civics & US History, with special emphasis on the Bill of Rights.
What a fuckwad he is.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. He was probably ordered to punish Emma

I'd like to know who placed the order.

[kath]

6. I'd really like to know as well. There really should be a full investigation into the matter.

Did you see this?:
"Sullivan's tweet Nov. 21 caught the eye of Brownback's deputy communications officer, who forwarded it to two staffers in the governor's office, according to a string of emails obtained by The Associated Press.

Niomi Burget, assistant director of scheduling, forwarded the tweet to Deborah Brown with the Shawnee Mission School District, who is state coordinator for the Youth in Government program, and said she didn't know if the student was in Brown's group, but thought if she was Brown might want to know about the tweet.

Brown responded that she had contacted Sullivan's principal, was embarrassed for the program, and hoped Brownback would speak to students again next year.

As Sullivan's tweet and her school's call for an apology letter gained traction online, Shawnee Mission East Principal Karl Krawitz emailed Burget to say that the teen never was threatened with punishment if she refused to write the letter. (emphasis mine) Krawitz, who said he had received "disgusting" hate mail over the incident, acknowledged he wasn't a Brownback supporter but was troubled that a student had been disrespectful while on a school trip."
from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/28/emma-sullivan-kansas-high_n_1116674.html

The sentence in bold sure seems like a lie to me - Emma's early statements suggested that she was told that she would be disciplined if she didn't write the letters, and then a disciplinary report would be attached to her college recommendation letters/transcripts.


ALso, it should be noted that he told her she needed to write FOUR letters, not one: to Brownback, the YIG program, the school's social studies department, and I don't remember the fourth (maybe the high school in general?). He also gave her talking points to use in the letters and gave her a deadline as to when they needed to be submitted.

If I were a parent in that district, I'd be screaming for the firing/resignation of Karl Krawitz, no matter where the idea of letters-of-apology came from. Does he have no grasp whatsoever of the First Amendment, or is he just a fascist fuck?

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. The principal is now getting death threats

He may have made a mistake but he certainly doesn't deserve to be threatened.

[kath]

8. Very true. But he deserves at the very least to be suspended

or sanctioned in some way, if not fired. I'd also recommend a remedial course in US History and Civics.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Not if he was just following orders

This goes above his head. It started with the governor and trickled down through distict admins to the principal.

[kath]

10. "I was only following orders" is always a sucky excuse.

A principal with any shred of integrity and even minimal knowledge of the Constitution would say to the district administrator "I'm sorry, Joe (or Joan) but this student has First Amendment rights. And you know if I punish her, or force her to apologize, lawyers and possibly the ACLU will be all over our asses in a New York minute."

The parent who spoke up at the school board meeting last night should follow up and make sure an investigation is done - it should be determined just who suggested the forced apology letters, and if Emma was threatened that a report would go on her college rec letters.

[deminks]

5. "Educators being pressured by 'heavy handed politicians'"

That is the key to a whole other story, IMHO.