Overview

Samantha Fulnecky University of Oklahoma Essay Controversy refers to the controversy and discourse surrounding an incident that took place in late November 2025, when OU junior Samantha Fulnecky received a failing grade for submitting a 650-word opinion essay for a psychology course prompt about "how societal expectations shape perceptions of gender." Fulnecky's essay argued for the gender binary on religious grounds, asserting, "God made male and female." The instructor who graded that essay, a graduate assistant identified as Mel Curth, gave Fulnecky a failing grade on account of the essay being off-prompt, lacking empirical evidence and for expressing bias in describing gender diversity of being "demonic."

Fulnecky filed a formal appeal and a "discrimination based on religious belief" complaint after receiving feedback on her essay and was backed publicly by the campus chapter of Turning Point USA (TPUSA). On November 30th, 2025, OU placed the graduate instructor on administrative leave while it reviewed the complaint. Several internet users reacted to the news as it went viral, with some noting that the student's mother was Kristi Fulnecky, a right-wing media figure and lawyer who offered legal defence to people who participated in the January 6th Storming of the Capitol in 2021.

Background

On November 27th, 2025, Oklahoma University's chapter of Turning Point USA made a post on X^[1] / Twitter about how psychology student "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," and how a "transgender professor" graded her essay zero points out of 25 for failing "to use empirical evidence." The post also highlighted how the instructor gave feedback that read, "To call an entire group of people 'demonic' is highly offensive, especially a minoritized population."

The post gathered over 36 million views and 11,000 likes in four days.

Samantha Fulnecky's 650-word essay is shown below:

Feedback from the University of Oklahoma instructors who graded the essay, Mel Curth and Megan Waldron, is shown below:

The story was covered by many publications, such as the New York Post^[2] and the Oklahoman,^[3] on November 30th, 2025.

Developments

On November 30th, 2025, the University of Oklahoma announced on X^[4] that it was reviewing Samantha Fulnecky's accusation of religious discrimination and placing the "graduate student instructor" who graded Samantha Fulnecky's letter on administrative leave, gathering over 24 million views and 8,000 likes in a day.

Also on November 30th, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt weighed in on the Samantha Fulnecky OU Psychology Essay controversy, writing on X,^[5] "The 1st Amendment is foundational to our freedom & inseparable from a well rounded education. The situation at OU is deeply concerning. I’m calling on the OU regents to review the results of the investigation & ensure other students aren’t unfairly penalized for their beliefs." The post gathered 500 likes in a day.

Online Reactions

News of the essay controversy continued to spread in late November and early December 2025 as the story garnered virality online and sparked heated reactions.

On November 28th, 2025, X^[7] user @RobertSecundus wrote, "Reading this actually makes me nostalgic. This is the quintessential Dumb Student Essay pre-ChatGPT. / 1. completely without structure, just kind of looping on a couple of points indefinitely / 2. saying almost nothing and yet also somehow contradicting itself / 3. ignoring the prompt." The post gathered over 40,000 likes in two days.

Also on November 28th, X^[8] user @SenatorLuma posted an I Think I Miss My Wife meme that was edited to read, "I think I miss secularism," gathering over 14,000 likes in three days.

On November 29th, 2025, X^[7] user @beesinpjs quoted Samantha Fulnecky's essay, writing, "you have to read this shit it's so funny they're acting like she was failed out of her class just for being christian or whatever but the actual essay (650 words btw lmao) reads like the unironic equivalent of the stomping turts perchance mario essay." The post referenced the Mario, the Idea vs. Mario, the Man meme, and gathered over 38,000 likes in two days.

On November 30th, X^[6] user @AlexanderMcCoy4 tweeted, "Lmao so the mom of the Turning Points USA kid who wrote the bad essay is crashing out over how all of Twitter is dunking on her daughter, and of course it turns out the mom is a GOP politician (makes you wonder if the whole thing was deliberately staged)." The tweet received over 45,000 likes in a day.

Search Interest

External References