Alissa Furry #

Introduction #

Alissa Furry is a Polk City, Iowa paramedic — voted the city’s 2025 Medic of the Year by her peers — who was fired in October 2025 over Facebook posts she made about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. She had reacted to news of Kirk’s September 10, 2025 death on her personal Facebook account while off duty, and deleted her comments within minutes, but was fired six weeks later anyway. In December 2025 she sued the city in federal court, arguing the termination violated her First Amendment rights, and in 2026 Polk City settled, with its insurer paying her $189,000 on the city’s behalf plus fees to her counsel.

Background Information #

Furry was a state-licensed paramedic with what her lawsuit describes as an otherwise exemplary employment record: she was named Rookie of the Year in 2024, voted Medic of the Year in 2025 by her peers, and received four Lifesaving Awards between 2023 and 2025, and according to the suit she had never been disciplined. The posts that ended her career were about Charlie Kirk, the rightwing activist and media figure who was shot and killed during an outdoor event at the University of Utah on Sept. 10, 2025. Kirk was outspoken in his opposition to calls for government action on gun safety after mass shootings, including school shootings, saying in 2023: “I think it’s worth it 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.” It was those past remarks minimizing gun violence in defense of the Second Amendment that Furry’s posts referenced.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

Own conduct, undisputed. The posts described here are Furry’s own words, quoted from her lawsuit filings and press reporting; the dispute is over whether the city’s response violated her rights, not over what she wrote.

On Sept. 10, 2025, off duty, Furry responded to the killing in a post on her personal Facebook page. “Why I really don’t care that this guy died from gun violence,” she began. “He was a bigoted prick, and according to his own words he died in an acceptable way. I have as much sympathy and empathy for him as that insurance CEO that was killed. I do care that two high school students were critically injured today due to gun violence at their school. Unfortunately, I’m seeing way more about this a–hole on my Facebook than I am the kids that were hurt.” According to her filing, a colleague contacted her almost immediately to warn her to be careful about making comments about Kirk, and she deleted her comments four minutes after posting them.

Later that day, still off duty and at home, she posted again on her Facebook page. “Meanwhile, all I’m seeing is people extolling the virtues of the guy that said empathy is fake and condoned deaths from gun violence as long as we get to keep the second amendment,” she wrote. “And yet people who are out of empathy to care about him are the bad ones.” She followed that quickly with another post featuring a popular quote misattributed to Oscar Wilde — “Some men improve the world only by leaving it” — adding, “I can choose to not celebrate, but also not be sad.” KCCI reported that the two other posts included a quote and a meme, and that the petition states she deactivated her account soon after.

Public Reaction and Consequences #

The reaction that mattered came from inside city government. According to the lawsuit, Polk City Police Chief Jeremy Siepker phoned Karla Hogrefe the next day about the Facebook posts, saying some of his officers had complained; five days later, Hogrefe placed Furry on administrative leave, telling her the city was reviewing her posts about Kirk. The review, conducted by city manager Chelsea Huisman, finished on Sept. 22 with a recommendation that the city fire Furry, and she was fired on Oct. 24. Her petition argues that her Facebook is personal and private, that the posts did not mention her employment and contained no threats. The suit alleges city officials acted based on political disagreement rather than any demonstrated workplace disruption, and claims male city employees made political or derogatory posts without facing discipline. Nor was the wave of discipline unique to Polk City: a Reuters investigation published the month before her firing found more than 600 people across the country fired, suspended or investigated for comments about Kirk after his death, and at least 10 public employees in Iowa were fired or disciplined over statements about him.

Current Status #

In December 2025, Furry sued Polk City and two senior officials in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, alleging the city violated her First Amendment rights by firing her over off-duty posts made as a private citizen on a matter of public concern, and seeking damages, reinstatement and a court order finding that her termination constituted unlawful retaliation. The city has settled: “The city’s insurer will pay Ms. Furry $189,000 on the city’s behalf as well as fees to her counsel,” according to a written statement by an attorney representing Polk City. Polk City did not admit to any wrongdoing as part of the settlement, with city leaders maintaining that “Ms. Furry’s termination was within the bounds of the law,” but saying settling “was necessary so that municipal departments and staff could move on and focus on their mission: serving the citizens of Polk City.”

Impact on Their Career/Life #

Furry lost a job the lawsuit says there was no cause to end based on her performance — the paramedic role that had just made her Medic of the Year, on the strength of a record that included Rookie of the Year, four Lifesaving Awards and no discipline. The settlement put a six-figure price on the episode — $189,000 from the city’s insurer, plus fees to her counsel, with no admission of wrongdoing by Polk City. Her equal-treatment claim — that male colleagues posted politically without consequence — remains part of the public record of the case, framing the firing as selective enforcement rather than workplace disruption. For a paramedic whose posts survived only minutes before she deleted them, the sequence — a warning from a colleague, an administrative leave, a review, a termination and a lawsuit — shows how little that haste bought her.