[PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________

No. 19-13513 ________________________

D.C. Docket No. 1:16-cv-04440-WMR

BATASKI BAILEY,

Plaintiff – Appellant,

versus METRO AMBULANCE SERVICES, INC., d.b.a. American Medical Response, Inc.,

Defendant – Appellee.

________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ________________________

(April 6, 2021) Before ROSENBAUM, LAGOA, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: USCA11 Case: 19-13513 Date Filed: 04/06/2021 Page: 2 of 35

Plaintiff-Appellant Bataski Bailey appeals the district court’s order granting summary judgment to Defendant-Appellee Metro Ambulance Services, Inc., doing business as American Medical Response, Inc. (“AMR”), in this Title VII action asserting failure to reasonably accommodate Bailey’s religious requirement, discrimination on the basis of religion, and retaliation for filing a discrimination claim. After careful review of the record, we affirm the district court’s order.

I.

Bailey earned his emergency-medical-technician (“EMT”) certification in 2005 and is licensed to practice as a paramedic.

AMR is a private company that offers ambulance services. AMR maintains a contract with DeKalb County to provide both emergency (911) and non-emergency transport services. Non-emergency transport services are scheduled pickups. Nevertheless, they sometimes require “911 urgency.” DeKalb County’s demand for emergency services “is a little bit greater than” for non-emergency transports.

In mid-2014, Bailey filled out an application online to work at AMR as a “part time paramedic.” The application did not specify whether the position would be in emergency or non-emergency transport or both. One of the questions on the application asked, “Have you ever been fired or asked to resign from any job?” The answer reflected on the application was “no.”

2 USCA11 Case: 19-13513 Date Filed: 04/06/2021 Page: 3 of 35

In October 2014, AMR’s Human Resources manager Nykia Moore interviewed Bailey, and according to Bailey, he also submitted a paper copy of his employment application to her at that time. On behalf of AMR, Moore testified that the company does not have applicants prepare paper applications, it did not have Bailey fill one out, and she had never seen a paper application filed by any employee at AMR, even though she maintained the personnel files of AMR’s local employees. The only paperwork AMR required applicants to prepare, Moore explained, regarded applicants’ background and credit-report checks. Those forms did not seek information concerning whether an applicant had been fired by a prior employer.

AMR offered Bailey a position as a paramedic and set January 12, 2015, as his start date. So on January 12, Bailey reported to work for orientation.

When he arrived, Bailey, a practicing Rastafarian, had a goatee as part of his religious practices. Bailey explained that growing facial hair is “seen as sacred and imbuing power to the believer” in Rastafarianism.

At the end of his orientation day, Bailey’s training officer, Ellette Jackson, advised him of DeKalb County’s grooming policy for emergency transports, with which AMR required compliance for employees conducting such transports. That policy was the DeKalb County Fire Rescue Grooming Policy, a