Jana Aldrich #

Introduction #

Jana Aldrich is a Council Bluffs, Iowa, special education teacher who was fired from the Omaha-based Child Saving Institute after posting a comment about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on her personal Facebook page — and who later won an unemployment benefits ruling finding she had committed no work-related misconduct. The case began on September 10, 2025, shortly after Kirk was shot and killed in Utah, when Aldrich shared a widely circulating meme quoting Kirk’s own past remarks about gun deaths and added a caption of her own: “He was wrong…it’s not worth it! I won’t miss him!!!” Although she posted during off-work hours on a personal page, twelve complaints from members of the public led her employer to terminate her two days later. In a ruling reported on March 2, 2026, Administrative Law Judge Jasmina Sarajlija rejected the institute’s misconduct claim and awarded Aldrich benefits.

Background Information #

Aldrich worked as a special education teacher for the Child Saving Institute (CSI), an Omaha-based nonprofit with a mission of helping children with behavioral, mental and social needs. Her Facebook profile listed her employment as a special education teacher at Children’s Square, the name of an organization that had been acquired by CSI. Her case unfolded against a charged statewide backdrop: after Kirk’s death, two Iowa Republican lawmakers signed a letter calling for the immediate firing of employees who had “publicly celebrated” it, House Speaker Pat Grassley said he expected school districts to “investigate these posts and reprimand the posters appropriately,” and Gov. Kim Reynolds said anyone who celebrated “taking another human life” should lose their job. Within days, several Iowans were fired for posting negative comments about Kirk or his political views, setting off civil lawsuits and administrative hearings on unemployment benefits.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

According to state records, on September 10, 2025, shortly after Kirk was shot and killed in Utah, Aldrich posted a comment to Facebook. The post included a widely circulating meme containing 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 her own comment: “He was wrong…it’s not worth it! I won’t miss him!!!” She made the post on her personal Facebook page, during off-work hours. Her supervisors at CSI learned of it after twelve members of the public contacted the organization to complain. According to information CSI later provided at a hearing, two of the complainants were out-of-state residents, none of the twelve had children attending CSI or any other direct involvement with the organization, and some suggested they would attempt to jeopardize the organization’s funding if Aldrich were not terminated. CSI went ahead and fired her on September 12, 2025.

Public Reaction and Consequences #

CSI determined that Aldrich’s post violated the organization’s social media policies because, in the organization’s view, it exhibited “a lack of empathy and humanity” that “directly contradicts the organization’s core mission and values.” Aldrich disputed those findings, arguing that her post actually showed empathy and humanity by stating that Kirk’s rhetoric on gun deaths was wrong and that no deaths — including Kirk’s — are worth the protections granted under the Second Amendment. CSI disagreed. After the firing, Aldrich filed for unemployment benefits, which CSI challenged, arguing she had been dismissed for work-related misconduct that would disqualify her from collecting. The dispute sent her case into the same channel as other post-Kirk firings in Iowa: administrative-law hearings on benefits, alongside civil lawsuits alleging wrongful termination and First Amendment violations.

Current Status #

The matter 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 caused any harm to the organization, and noted that even if work-related misconduct had been shown, there was no evidence the post violated the organization’s policy calling on workers to represent CSI positively in their online activity. “The post itself made no reference to the employer or claimant’s employment with the employer,” the judge ruled, adding that it “did not contain any hateful or violent language that could be interpreted as condoning the shooting death of the activist.” Aldrich said she was pleased with the ruling: “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,” she said. “Right now, I’m just wondering whether I should take this any further.” Calls to CSI for comment on the ruling were not immediately returned.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

Aldrich lost her job two days after posting a personal opinion on her own time — from an employer she never named — and spent months contesting the characterization of that loss as misconduct. The administrative ruling restored her unemployment benefits and formally rejected the premise of her firing: that a special education teacher’s off-hours Facebook comment, on a page where her employer was only incidentally listed, could be treated as work-related misconduct. The record compiled at the hearing undercut the pressure campaign as well, showing that none of the twelve complainants had children at CSI or any direct involvement with the organization. Her case stands alongside the other Iowa firings of the post-Kirk period as an example of how quickly a private post became a public employment crisis — and of the limits a neutral adjudicator later placed on that response. As of the most recent reporting, Aldrich remained out of the job and was still weighing whether to pursue further legal action.