Who is Samantha Fulnecky's mom? 650-word Oklahoma essay girl controversy explained amid raging online debate

University of Oklahoma student Samantha Fulnecky is going viral again after her mother's identity was revealed. Her mother, Kristi Fulnecky, was a politician in Springfield, and she was forced to step down due to multiple lawsuits.

In 2017, two tax liens were filed against Kristi, but she claimed they were errors by the IRS. During the pandemic, she sued the Springfield and the city of Branson for pushing the mask mandate.

Samantha Fulnecky's mother also sued the Springfield Public Schools over its reopening plan, demanding five days of in-person attendance for students. She has also made headlines for her online behavior, from threatening a police chief to blocking and sending legal letters to private citizens.

Samantha Fulnecky went viral last month for her 650-word essay on how people are perceived based on societal expectations of gender. The students were assigned to read an article on the topic and share their analysis in their essay.

Samatha recieved 0 out of 25 marks and accused her professor of discrimination. The university's Turning Point USA X handle released her full essay, along with the instructor Mel Curtis's feedback, which was shared on an online grading platform.

The right-wing organization founded by Charlie Kirk stated that they supported Samantha and refused to let "mentally ill professors" stop conservatives from voicing their thoughts.

In her viral essay, Samantha Fulnecky shared that she disagreed with her peers who believe in gender stereotypes. She claimed that gender roles and tendencies were not a bad thing, as God supposedly is "intentional" with his creations, and eliminating gender in society would be "detrimental."

She brought up the Bible and said she was "happy to be following a stereotype." Samantha called out her classmates, saying their thoughts on the matter were "mundane," and they seemingly tried not to step on others' toes.

Fulnecky then wrote that others who shared a different opinion from hers were living in a "cowardly and insincere way." The student stated that the multiple gender ideology was "demonic" and was supposedly harming the youth.

"I strongly disagree with the idea from the article that encouraging acceptance of diverse gender expressions could improve students' confidence. Society pushing the lie that there are multiple genders and everyone should be whatever they want to be is demonic and severely harms American youth," Samantha Fulnecky wrote.

For a psychology course at the University Oklahoma, Samantha Fulnecky was asked to write a 650-word essay reacting to an article about how people are perceived based on societal expectations of gender.

In her essay, Fulnecky argued that traditional gender roles should not be… pic.twitter.com/R3J4FaGEtw

— TPUSA_OU (@TurningPointOU) November 27, 2025

Samantha Fulnecky's essay was criticized by two instructors

Professor Mel Curth shared that she deducted points from the viral essay because it seemingly had more personal ideology than empirical evidence. She claimed the essay was "highly offensive" and told Samantha to add more perspective and empathy in her future writing.

Megan Waldron, another instructor, wrote on the online grading platform that the student's essay lacked "empirical evidence and higher-level reasoning." She noted that it was fine for Samantha to have a different opinion from her peers. However, she reportedly criticized the other students directly and harshly, when their perspective is as valuable as hers.

Turning Point USA's tweet on the matter garnered over 12,000 likes from netizens. Three days later, on November 30, the University of Oklahoma released a statement announcing that Mel Curth had been placed on administrative leave.

They also stated that Mel would not teach students as long as the investigation into the discrimination claim was ongoing. As the 650-word essay has started a discourse online, X user @kraywhiseheart has reuploaded Samantha Fulnecky's mother's controversies.

They also claimed that Samantha Fulnecky allegedly orchestrated the entire controversy to land a job at Fox News, Turning Point USA, or the Heritage Foundation. Notably, this claim is not verified.

Stay tuned for more updates on Samantha Fulnecky and her essay controversy.