A Vermont Department of Corrections worker has been fired for a slur-filled, obscenity-laced Facebook posting complaining that he had to work on a holiday and guard a transgender inmate who was on suicide watch.
“HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY from the communist haven of VT,” James Frank wrote on his Facebook page, according to public records obtained regarding his termination.
“Have to go in 4 hours early to sit and watch a he she who wants to hurt/kill self,” Frank added in the posting. “SO sick of the LIBERAL BULLSHIT. I think it’s just a p-ssy that won’t do it anyway and needs attention.”
The posting continued with Frank writing that he was “done” with the corrections department.
“With any luck,” he wrote, “they fire me and I’ll take their money and benefits, like the f’in freeloaders we watch!”
Frank did end up getting fired for the posting, and he appealed his termination through a grievance filed on his behalf by the Vermont State Employees’ Association, the union representing correctional workers.
The VSEA presented several arguments, including that Frank was fired without “just cause,” progressive discipline was bypassed, and Frank’s actions were free speech protected by the First Amendment.
Earlier this month, the Vermont Labor Relations Board upheld the decision by James Baker, interim corrections commissioner, in firing Frank.
“We recognize there can be differing plausible views with respect to grievant’s potential for rehabilitation,” the decision read.
“However, we will uphold management’s decision to dismiss an employee if management exercised its discretion within tolerable limits of reasonableness,” the ruling added, “and it was reasonable for DOC Commissioner Baker to conclude that ‘Grievant can’t just walk back from a statement’ like he made in the Facebook post.”
Steve Howard, VSEA executive director, said Tuesday he could not comment on the case, calling it a personnel matter. Frank could not be reached for comment.
The VSEA did post about the firing and the labor board’s ruling on its website under the headline, “VLRB Ruling Triggers Social Media Caution from VSEA.“
The posting said Aimee Towne, VSEA president, had emailed union members about the decision.
“Towne says that, boiled down, this means members should be careful about what they are posting to social media because, judging by this VLRB ruling, it could be used against you by the state of Vermont,” the VSEA website posting stated.
Corrections officials couldn’t immediately be reached Tuesday for comment.
Posting after drinking
It has taken well over a year for the case to reach the point of the labor board decision.
Frank apologized for his statements and blamed his actions in part on drinking alcohol.
Frank was hired in March 2005 as a corrections officer at the Northwest Regional Correctional Facility in St. Albans, then voluntarily resigned in April 2011. He reapplied and was rehired to work as a cook at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington in May 2012, then returned to the St. Albans prison as a corrections officer from 2016 until his firing.
The ruling stated that Frank had consistently received “positive” comments on his employee evaluations for how he worked with inmates, and was disciplined only once with a written reprimand for failing to properly close a door while working in a control room.
The decision said Frank was aware that the corrections officer job came with a requirement of mandatory overtime to cover unfilled shifts.
On July 3, 2019, according to the ruling, Frank was told he would need to start his shift the next day four hours early, and instead of coming in at 2 p.m. on July 4, he was told to start at 10 a.m., starting earlier so he could guard a transgender inmate on suicide watch.
Frank became upset that he had to go in early on July 4 because he had planned to spend time on the holiday with his family, the decision said. On the evening of July 3, according to the ruling, he drank a “large amount of alcohol” and published the Facebook post late that day.
He also followed up his initial posting with another one stating, “GO AHEAD AND REPORT ME UP THE CHAIN OF COMMAND: TIME SOMEONE PISSED IN THEIR ASS KISSING CHEERIOS ANYWAY.”
At the time of the posting, Frank had 600 Facebook friends, including 100 who worked for the corrections department.
On the morning of July 4, 2019, James Mann, a shift supervisor at the St. Albans prison, overheard comments about Frank’s Facebook postings from the night earlier, and he obtained a copy of them.
Mann then reached out to Greg Hale, the prison superintendent, and told him that, when Frank came in at 10 a.m., he’d be moved to a different assignment due to “potential misconduct,” the ruling stated.
Hale then contacted Al Cormier, the corrections department facilities executive, who told him to “write it up as a formal investigation and forward it” to the state Department of Human Resources.
On July 9, 2019, the decision stated, Frank received a letter informing him that he was “temporarily placed on a leave with pay” as an investigation was conducted, and that temporary leave was extended multiple times.
Never intended for the public
In an interview with an investigator from the human resources department, Frank reported that he had received sexual harassment training, as well as training for dealing with inmates.
He also told the investigator he had been drinking the night of the postings, adding, “I was two or three rocks glasses in straight … except for the ice … And I was just, you know, I was throwing it to the wind.”
He added: “I would never at work — I don’t have a problem with the way a person lives their life. But I — don’t ram it down your neck,” he told the investigator. “I don’t ram the way I live down your neck. … I don’t want it jammed down mine.”
At a later hearing with the Department of Human Resources investigator and Hale, the prison’s superintendent, Frank read a lengthy statement and said he never intended for the posts to be for “public consumption,” adding that he thought only his friends and family would see them.
“I do not now, nor have I ever had an issue working with an inmate, or client, or any ilk, ilk meaning persuasion,” Frank stated. “Unfortunately, in my post that night, in an inebriated and altered state, I let my dark side rule the moment in a private setting. For this, I am deeply apologetic and sincerely regretful.”
A decision on his status with the corrections department was delayed for months, according to the ruling, in part because of an illness Frank had as well as upheaval in the corrections department at the time, including the resignation of Michael Touchette, who had been the department’s commissioner.
Also, when Baker was appointed interim commissioner this January, he found a department in “complete disarray,” and also had to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, it wasn’t until later in March that Baker informed Frank in a letter that he’d decided to fire him.
Baker wrote that Frank could not “walk back” what he had posted on Facebook.
“Specifically,” Baker wrote in the letter to Frank, “you publicly posted, after identifying yourself as a DOC employee, comments that were derogatory, insensitive and sexist pertaining to an inmate under the care and custody of the DOC based upon the inmate’s gender/sex identity.”
