Mercy Culture pastor celebrates church school having lowest vaccination rate in Texas

Mercy Culture Lead Pastor Landon Schott took to social media March 5 to highlight his church’s private school having the lowest vaccination rate in the state of Texas.

Only 14.29% of kindergartners at Mercy Culture Preparatory Academy were vaccinated for the 2023-24 school year, according to data from the state health department.

That’s significantly lower than the state average of roughly 94% for vaccines covering diphtheria, hepatitis, measles, polio and chicken pox, according to health department data.

“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,” Schott said in a video on Instagram.

He went on to reference vaccine mandates and stay at home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic calling the shut downs “insanity” and noting that some people lost their jobs for refusing to comply with vaccine mandates.

“Freedom is something we take seriously, religious freedom and freedom of our health,” he said. “We’ll take it, or, as Mercy Culture says, we celebrate it. We’ll put it on the board.”

Mercy Culture Prep’s student handbook requires all vaccination records to be on file, and doesn’t allow students to attend if vaccination records are not current.

The policy does allow families to abstain from vaccinating their children provided they get a notarized state official affidavit, according to the handbook.

Schott did not immediately respond to a direct message from the Star-Telegram requesting comment.

Mercy Culture Prep is not alone in having low vaccination rates. Roughly a third of Fort Worth school district elementary schools were below the 95% vaccination rate threshold to be protected from a measles outbreak during the 2023-24 school year, according to a Star-Telegram analysis of state data.

Tarrant County officials believe there’s a “moderate to high likelihood” of a measles outbreak, and are taking action to manage the situation.

A West Texas measles outbreak has infected 159 people with the majority being unvaccinated children. One child has died.

Harrison Mantas

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

817-390-7040

Harrison Mantas has covered Fort Worth city government, agencies and people since September 2021. He likes to live tweet city hall meetings, and help his fellow Fort Worthians figure out what’s going on.