Prison guard who made Facebook threat to Gov. Kasich gets job

Fourteen months after Jessie Hubbard was fired for making a threatening Facebook posting about the governor, an arbitrator ruled that he should be reinstated as a guard at Lebanon Correctional Institution but without back pay.

Hubbard’s dismissal in January 2012 ignited a debate over free speech in the workplace and whether it extends to menacing comments on an employee’s Facebook page.

Hubbard wrote on May 3, 2011: “Ok we got Bin Laden…let’s get Kasich next… who is with me?” Seventeen people, including four other state prison workers, hit the “like” button, and some Facebook friends responded that they would join Hubbard if he brought cookies.

Hubbard said the remark was a joke, made during the height of the public debate over Kasich’s plan to gut collective bargaining rights for public employees.

Hubbard was put on paid administrative leave in September 2011 and then fired in January 2012. The remark ended up costing Hubbard about $60,000 in lost pay, he said.

Hubbard, 42, of Trenton, said he expects to return to his $43,000-a-year job later this spring. He said he still has his Facebook page but is much more cautious about what he posts…..Prison guard who made Facebook threat to Gov. Kasich gets job... | www.daytondailynews.com