ORLANDO - A JetBlue flight attendant who reached her boiling point after wearing a mask at work for two years thanks to the COVID pandemic will get to keep pursuing only one part of her lawsuit against the company.
Elisabeth Serian's email to superiors called the company's mask mandate "tyranny" and was posted to a Facebook group for JetBlue in-flight crewmembers, but allegations the company cyberbullied her afterward do not rise to Title VII retaliation and hostile work environment, Florida federal judge Julie Sneed ruled on July 11.
Specifically, her charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission - a prerequisite for filing a discrimination lawsuit - did not mention Title VII claims, Sneed said.
"(I)t is not clear to the court which protected activity Plaintiff is attempting to link to which adverse action," Sneed wrote.
"Plaintiff alleges that Defendant was aware that she 'was engaged in the protected activity of making her claim of discrimination.' However, Plaintiff did not 'make her claim of discrimination' until after her termination."
Since the EEOC charge wasn't made until more than five months after she was fired, Serian can't show a causal connection, Sneed wrote.
Serian had worked for JetBlue for six years before the COVID pandemic hit in 2020. She complied with mandatory mask-wearing policies until she started suffering respiratory difficulties and vomiting, she says.
A health care professional wrote a note indicating her health was at issue and that she required a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act. She made a request to take off the mask in July 2020, when masks were still required by government orders.
JetBlue said she could wear it or take a leave of absence. Serian said her request to wear a face shield was denied and she continued to work while wearing a mask.
Continued emails asking for reconsideration of her accommodation request led to no results for her. She started posting on JetBlue's unofficial private Facebook page about articles and studies showing masks were ineffective against COVID and detrimental to one's health when worn for long periods of time at high altitudes.
She says bullying that followed on Facebook was reported to JetBlue, which took no action. By April 2022, the company's mask mandate remained in effect and it scheduled a hearing - Serian thought it would be regarding her accommodation request but rumors swirled she would be suspended at it.
An April 13, 2022, email sent after news of two more weeks wearing masks with the subject "I'm done complying" probably didn't help her defense.
"Congress does not have to wear them. I do not have to wear them. This ends when y'all say it does," the email says. "A mandate is not and never has been a law, so there's no issue when it comes to standing against tyranny.
"I have been very vocal about this company being a slave to communism. Now is your chance to show your Crewmembers that you have integrity and make it an option."
Later, she wrote that by April 18 of that year she would no longer be wearing a mask.
"At all, I will do the job that I signed up for 8 years ago," she wrote. "That job never included bowing down to commies. I have played their game long enough and I'm actually annoyed at myself for not standing up sooner."
She posted screenshots of her email on the JetBlue in-flight crewmembers page. She was fired for social media violations.
The lawsuit came in December 2023 and made claims for retaliation, hostile work environment and failure to accommodate under the ADA. Only the last claim will get to move forward, despite JetBlue's argument Serian failed to consider the threat her failure to wear a mask would have posed on the public.
That is an affirmative defense not appropriate at the motion-to-dismiss stage, Judge Sneed wrote.