Emma Sullivan, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback Tweeter, Bullied At School

Emma Sullivan couldn't have expected the national attention her disparaging tweet about Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback would receive, but that's exactly what she got.

Now, it seems the student's troubles are continuing, with Sullivan telling Politico she's being bullied by her classmates in the wake of the incident.

The high school senior, who tweeted that Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback "sucked," initially faced pressure from her principal to apologize to governor. But it was Sullivan who eventually received an apology from Brownback, who said his office "overreacted" to the tweet.

Politico highlighted some examples of the online abuse directed at Sullivan:

"A Twitter hashtag set up against her contains numerous expletives, including one user, @PoundShop_Zoe, who calls her a 'whore' multiple times. 'When Emma Comes back she should be forced to go to north #HopeYourHappy... Whore,' he writes.

But Sullivan, who attracted a wave of support in the form of more than 12,000 new Twitter followers following incident, says she's taking the bullying in stride.

"It is just bullying, and I'm trying not to take it to heart because that's what they want me to do," she told Politico on Tuesday. "I'm getting a lot of negative attention locally, and that's a lot to deal with. The students at my high school are being really bad about the situation - it just sucks that they don't support me at all in any of this."

Comments

[rewith85man]

02:56 AM on 01/09/2012

You can be famous or infamous. Regardless, people would still love or love to hate you.

[charwars]

08:05 PM on 12/05/2011

This country is going down the toilet and politicians, BOTH Republicans AND Democrats are to blame. As long the politicians keep playing the brainwashed Left and Right against each other to take the attention away from them their own greed, laziness, ignorance, and stupidity, while they get rich and live off massive taxpayer funded pensions, kickbacks, Gifts, free healthcare for life, etc. all the while spending the country into oblivion. Every politician I talk to is perfect because it's always the other guy or the other party or someone else who's not doing the right thing. It's never them..BS! It's ALL OF THEM!

[Renee Chalmers]

02:25 PM on 12/05/2011

They don't support her because she lied about an incident and then made a huge deal about it by going to the media in fake outrage. Nothing about this incident was handled well by her, or her parents. She's just another drama queen wannabe... this is what reality tv has turned us into. Everyone vying for their 15 minutes of fame. Don't complain about it when you get it. Her parents should have made her apologize for lying. Free Speech is important, but dishonesty is deplorable and she should know that.

[Harold Carter Jr]

02:27 PM on 12/06/2011

Don't forget this is still a child and adults should stay out of the mix as it relates to children. For adults to be cheiming in on a child in such a negative was is criminal. America need to get back to the constitution and realize that free speach good or bad is a God given right!!

[jebby1]

05:59 PM on 12/06/2011

When a Democrat congressman has sex with a 17 year old the hateful left refers to the 17 year old as an adult. When an 18 year old sends a twitter with profanity to a non-Democrat the hateful left calls her a child.

Just a nother reason why I very rarely vote for a Democrat.

[jerryengelbach]

02:06 PM on 12/07/2011

Lie? What lie? She didn't say she met him face to face, just that he was there when she made the comment.

But what if she did stretch the truth a little? It's no more important than a fish story that gets exaggerated with every telling. The tall tale is staple of Americana.

Trying to put this on the level of the kinds of lies that are told every day by politicians, which affect the lives of every one of us, demonstrates a seriously distorted sense of perspective.

[onrecess]

08:47 AM on 12/05/2011

You know that "media wh@#e", "attention wh#@e". and "fame w#0r3" all mean an attention monger- like one who would run to the press to complain fellow students thought she disgraced them and the replies would not be understood by non-twitter twits, right?

[onrecess]

08:41 AM on 12/05/2011

So when she twitted that he sucked that was good. When other students say she sucks they are bad... Got it.

[FiredUpRTG]

02:24 AM on 12/05/2011

Time for some First Amendment teaching.

[beadyi]

05:57 PM on 12/04/2011

Emma. That's why they called it Twitter...

they knew a lot of twits would use it.

Don't pay any attention to them.

[AbstractImp]

04:00 PM on 12/04/2011

Lots of BrownNoses on Brownback Mountain.

[AbstractImp]

03:57 PM on 12/04/2011

BIG LAWSUIT!

[KMBerger]

12:06 PM on 12/04/2011

And what, pray tell, is the school doing to prevent the bullying? This is now a school problem because the Principal made it a problem by demanding her apologize to the Governor. Obviously there are students in the school whose parents support the Governor and so their kids are not bullying her. This is when school authorities need to step in and say "cut it out or you will be expelled." There has to be a zero tolerance for bullying. I wish Ms. Sullivan well through this ordeal. She doesn't deserve to be treated in this manner.

[Mr Anonymous]

10:04 PM on 12/03/2011

This is high school, not real life. Learn from it and move on.

[ttsgw]

05:23 PM on 12/03/2011

She should have been put in jail for criticising a GOP governer, if not executed, the favourite punishment among republicans.

[jebby1]

01:26 AM on 12/04/2011

I believe the Kansas Death Penalty was enacted under Democrat Governor Joan Finney's administration. Although she gave lip service to opposing it she did the traditional political squirm thing by neither vetoing nor signing the legislation.

[KMBerger]

12:07 PM on 12/04/2011

I hope you are being facetious in your comment; otherwise I'd say you are one sick puppy.

[UnderTheHedgeWeGo]

04:34 PM on 12/03/2011

With all of the things that go on at town hall meetings from members of the Tea Party, THIS is what is what Brownback considers to be "disrespectful"?

[UnderTheHedgeWeGo]

04:24 PM on 12/03/2011

You may as well learn what Republicans are all about early.

[one1byke]

03:35 PM on 12/03/2011

You're winning Emma. Don't even worry about it. Let them.