Teen told to apologize for Brownback tweet

PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan., Nov. 24 (UPI) -- A Kansas teenager said she was forced to apologize for making a disparaging tweet about Gov. Sam Brownback while listening to him speak.

Emma Sullivan, a senior at Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, said she made the Twitter post about Brownback while listening to him speak Monday in Topeka as part of Kansas Youth in Government, The Wichita Eagle reported Thursday.

"Just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot," the post read.

Sullivan said she was called to her school principal's office Tuesday and told the tweet had been flagged by Brownback's staff and reported to Youth in Government organizers.

Principal Karl Krawitz "laid into me about how this was unacceptable and an embarrassment," Sullivan said. "He said I had created this huge controversy and everyone was up in arms about it … and now he had to do damage control.

"I'm mainly shocked that they would even see that tweet and be concerned about me," she said. "I just honestly feel they're making a lot bigger deal out of it than it actually was."

Sullivan said she was ordered to write letters of apology to Brownback and Youth in Government. She said she will write the letters during her Thanksgiving break to put the incident behind her.

"I don't regret what I said," she said. "I guess I'm just kind of shocked right now."