(An IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH report) – A western Iowa teacher who was fired after publicly commenting that she wouldn’t miss activist Charlie Kirk after his death last year has been awarded jobless benefits. Jana Aldrich of Council Bluffs was a special education teacher who last year worked for the Omaha-based Child Saving Institute, a nonprofit with a mission of helping children with behavioral, mental and social needs. According to state records, on Sept. 10, 2025, shortly after conservative activist Kirk was shot and killed in Utah, Aldrich posted a comment to Facebook. The post included a widely circulating meme that included Kirk’s April 3, 2023, statement in response to a question about gun deaths: “I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”

Above the meme, Aldrich added a comment of her own: “He was wrong…it’s not worth it! I won’t miss him!!!” Aldrich posted the comment on her personal Facebook page during off-work hours, although her Facebook profile listed her employment as a special education teacher at Children’s Square, the name of an organization that was acquired by CSI. Aldrich’s supervisors at CSI learned of the post after 12 members of the public contacted the organization and complained. According to information CSI later provided at a hearing, two of the complainants were out-of-state residents and none of the 12 had children attending CSI or had any other direct involvement with the organization. Some of the complainants suggested they would attempt to jeopardize the organization’s funding if CSI didn’t terminate Aldrich’s employment.

CSI subsequently determined Aldrich’s post violated the organization’s social media policies in that they exhibited a lack of empathy and humanity, which directly contradicts the organization’s core mission and values. Aldrich disputed those findings, arguing that her post showed empathy and humanity by stating Kirk’s rhetoric on gun deaths was wrong and that suggesting that no deaths — including Kirk’s — are worth the protections granted under the Second Amendment. CSI disagreed, and Aldrich was fired on Sept. 12, 2025. She subsequently filed for unemployment benefits, which CSI challenged, arguing she had been dismissed for work-related misconduct that would disqualify her from collecting benefits.

The matter recently went to a hearing before Administrative Law Judge Jasmina Sarajlija, who ruled in Aldrich’s favor and awarded her benefits, finding there was no evidence her off-duty conduct was connected to her work. Sarajlija also found that CSI had provided insufficient evidence that Aldrich’s conduct had caused any harm to the organization. Even if CSI has provided evidence of work-related misconduct that was damaging to the organization, Sarajlija stated, there was no evidence to indicate Aldrich’s Facebook post violated the organization’s policy calling for workers to represent CSI in a positive manner in their online activity. “The post itself made no reference to the employer or claimant’s employment with the employer,” Sarajlija ruled. “Her post also did not contain any hateful or violent language that could be interpreted as condoning the shooting death of the activist.”

Aldrich said Monday she was pleased with the ruling and is still weighing her options as to any further legal action she might take. “I will say that this decision made me feel vindicated with regard to knowing in my heart that they did the wrong thing at CSI, that it wasn’t right what they did to me,” Aldrich said. “So it made me feel vindicated in that sense. Right now, I’m just wondering whether I should take this any further.”

Other cases include that of Melisa Crook, a high school English teacher from Creston, who sued the Creston Community School District in federal court after being told she was facing termination for her comments about Kirk. Crook had written of Kirk: “He is a terrible human being … terrible. I do not wish death on anyone, but him not being here is a blessing.” In her lawsuit, Crook cited a series of pro-Republican posts by Superintendent Deron Stender and school board president Don Gee. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger granted Crook’s motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction blocking the district’s plans to terminate her. In her ruling on that issue, Ebinger concluded “Crook spoke as a citizen on a matter of public concern when posting her Facebook comment… Crook posted her Facebook comments on her personal time, at home, from her personal Facebook account. She did not purport to speak as an employee of the Creston Community School District.”

The school district has appealed that ruling while the underlying case proceeds toward trial.