Amid measles outbreak, Christian school brags about having the worst vaccination rates in Texas
"Shoutout to MC Prep for being the least vaccinated school in Texas!" said Pastor Landon Schott
This newsletter is free, but it’s only able to sustain itself due to the support I receive from a small percentage of regular readers. Would you please consider becoming one of those supporters? You can use the button below to subscribe to Substack or use my usual Patreon page!
The leader of a private Christian school in Texas is celebrating the fact that his students are the least vaccinated kids in the state… amidst a measles outbreak.
Last week, as measles broke out across Texas, local news channel WFAA reported that more than 125 people had been infected, including someone in North Texas. (The number is now over 160.) The story correctly noted that measles is highly contagious—and very deadly—but that the MMR vaccine can prevent kids from suffering the consequences. If 95% of the population is vaccinated, herd immunity kicks in and the virus has a difficult time spreading.
Because private and public schools have to report vaccination rates to the state, it’s easy to see where problems can develop. WFAA pointed out that there were 187 schools with kindergarten vaccination rates lower than 95%… including six schools in North Texas with vaccination rates lower than 50%. (Five of them are private Christian schools.)
At the very bottom of the list? Mercy Culture Preparatory Academy with a ridiculously low 14.3% vaccination rate. That was less than half of the second worst school in North Texas… though, again, anything below 95% is concerning. (Across all of Texas, Mercy Culture Prep remains the worst.)
Mercy Culture Prep is a school with over 350 students ranging from preschool through 12th grade and its website makes very clear how this place is rooted in the Bible:
We are a fully accredited school K-12th. Our primary goal at MC PREP has always been to educate the whole child. We believe God is at the center of all subjects. Our teachers are highly qualified, degreed, and dedicated to train the next generation of young people that have a desire to make an impact in their communities through God’s truth and love.
As a school, we seek a partnership with parents to help raise students who will impact their culture by instilling in them wisdom, knowledge, righteousness, and a strong Biblical foundation.
Well, they may indeed have an impact on their community. Just not in the way anyone wants. And this school wants those kids to be unvaccinated. Its website even offers an exemption form for parents on its website:
This is all especially ironic given that the first item in the school’s stated values is “health.” (Not real health, though. Just fake Jesus health.)
We remain healthy by prioritizing daily personal encounters with God, pursuing purity, putting family first, and protecting our sabbath so we can lead others in health.
Matthew 6:33, Proverbs 3:5-8
There’s no mention of how they plan to lead others if they’re in the hospital or six feet under.
Now the whole situation has gotten even worse.
On Wednesday, Pastor Landon Schott, the head of Mercy Culture Church (which oversees the school), bragged on Instagram about their culture of vaccine rejection:
Hey, guys. Quick video. I just walked into an MC Prep board meeting, and there was these balloons and a surprise gift. I'm like, “What's this going out?”
I just found out—I'm a little behind in the news, I'm a little slow, getting old—but I just found out we are the #1 school in Texas for least vaccinations. And I guess the news got a hold of it, and they were trying to spin it like it was some awful thing, but I just want to congratulate all the family members of MC Prep that embrace freedom of health, and they're not allowing government or science projects to affect how you live and lead your life.
I know the entire world was shut down with insanity, and people were fired from their job for forced vaccinations, and freedom is something that we take seriously. Religious freedom. Freedom of our health. And so shoutout to MC Prep for being the least vaccinated school in Texas!
We'll take it. Or as Mercy Culture say, we celebrate it. We'll put it on the board.
Schott even held up a t-shirt made in their honor:
Would have been more appropriate to hand out body bags...
These people have completely memory-holed everything that happened in 2020. They are brainwashed by the idea that closing public spaces to prevent the spread of COVID, a deadly airborne disease, was some kind of liberal conspiracy.
It’s hard to tell if Schott has any knowledge of how vaccinations work and why herd immunity is so important, or if he just buys into the right-wing lie that rejecting vaccines is a point of pride because freedom. Either way, what he’s actually celebrating is that his school puts more kids at risk of dying of a preventable disease because the parents who send their kids there are clueless and surrounded by even more irresponsible adults.
These people are so pro-life, they’re willing to sacrifice their children—and yours—to own the libs.
It’s not just the church, either. State Rep. Nate Schatzline, a Republican who represents this district and sends his kids to MC Prep, said on X/Twitter: “I’ve gotten word that my children’s school has been ranked the #1 most unvaccinated school in Texas & I’m upset… that we haven’t celebrated sooner!… Way to go MC Prep! You’ve earned a medical freedom award from my office!” (There was a celebratory video, too.)
It’s just a parade of religious morons who are so selfish that they’re unwilling to protect their own communities because it would mean acknowledging that scientists got this one right. Schatzline’s video includes criticism of a transgender scientist because why not. Christians and Republicans love random acts of bigotry.)
Schatzline then trolled reporters who asked for further comment:
Schatzline told The News on Thursday that he is a pastor at Mercy Culture. He shared his X post in response to a request for further comment.
On Thursday morning, Schott posted to X: “Don’t let spiritually unhealthy people tell you how to be healthy!”
Later in the day, Schott reposted a post from another account praising Mercy Culture Preparatory’s low vaccination rate.
“Why is it important? Because traditional thought is averse to this kind of freedom,” the other account stated on X. “[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] is showing us the truth about many vaccines.”
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., of course, is most famous for lying about vaccines. And these Christians believe him because they’re prone to accepting whatever conspiracy theories line up with their political views.
They’re celebrating right now because, as far as we know, the virus hasn’t affected the kids in that school. Yet. But if and when that happens, everyone in that building is at risk. The virus will spread faster than nails through a cross, and that should matter to people who live near them because it means everyone they interact with outside their bubble will also be in danger. These Christians just don’t care because they falsely believe their faith will protect them from diseases and they’re too arrogant to listen to experts who have studied viruses their entire lives.
To paraphrase a commenter on Instagram, it’s easy to see why Schott is so excited: Funerals for children are very lucrative for pastors.
And when the outbreak inevitably happens, math suggests the school could soon be 100% vaccinated.
By the way, if you want to read even more about this church, check out this article about how survivors of sex trafficking say Mercy Culture Church exploited them for cash.
As much as anything this fool's posturing speaks directly to how far removed from reason true believers are. They would be only too happy to make themselves masters of us all. Ignore religion at your leisure. Ignore science at your peril.
It's a cult. They will believe anything the MAGA propaganda tells them to even when it contradicts yesterday's propaganda or something they used to believe.