Sam Brownback already apologizing for freaking out about high schooler's tweet

Well, that was pretty quick: just a few days after the story broke about the Kansas high-school student who was asked to apologize to Governor Brownback for an unflattering tweet, both the school and the Gov are backing down. (After the student, Emma Sullivan, basically told them to forget about ever getting such an apology, it's worth noting.)

If you don't remember, Sullivan's offending message was, "Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot," which is definitely not a compliment. (It is hilarious though. #heblowsalot is pretty amazing hash tag, and probably about as much wit as you can ask from an eighteen-year old.) But I guess the grown-ups have realized that a well-known politician asking for an apology from an unknown teen about a tweet no one would have seen comes off as both silly and kind of petty? Because now Brownback is admitting that he and his team overreacted:

"My staff overreacted to this tweet, and for that I apologize," Brownback said in a Monday statement emailed to The Associated Press. "Freedom of speech is among our most treasured freedoms."

The Governor then went on to say that he enjoyed speaking to the many politically minded young people at the event where Sullivan unleashed her 140-characters-or-fewer takedown. (Something tells me at this point he's probably appreciating some of those young people more than others.) The high school has also released a statement more or less removing itself from the situation entirely, saying any apologies will have to be up to the individuals involved. Which, it should be noted one more time, are a major elected official in one corner and a tweeting teen in the other.