Iowa Capital Dispatch
March 2, 2026
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.”
