Texas GOP lawmaker brags in video about low vaccination rate at his kids’ school

Texas is ground zero for one of the nation’s worst measles outbreak in years, and the disease has largely affected the unvaccinated.

But that didn’t stop one Texas Republican lawmaker from posting a video on social media this week celebrating the low vaccination rate of the school his children attend.

State Rep. Nate Schatzline, who represents a district north of Fort Worth, tweeted a two-minute clip in which he trumpeted the abysmal vaccination rate at Mercy Culture Preparatory as reason for an award from his office.

“Why haven’t we celebrated this sooner?” Schatzline said. “Look, I am so excited to say that Mercy Culture Prep is celebrating medical freedom where we honor the wishes of moms and dads over any type of health official.”

The MMR vaccination rate for the Fort Worth private campus is 14.29% — the lowest of any school in the state, according to data from the Texas Health and Human Services Department.

Schatzline posted his clip — which has garnered nearly 100,000 views and more than 1,000 likes as of press time — in response to longtime Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Bud Kennedy, who recently ridiculed Mercy Culture for its vaccination rate.

Schatzliner’s boast comes as Texas contends with its worst measles outbreak since 2019.

As of press time Friday, state officials have documented 198 cases of the highly contagious and potentially deadly disease. Twenty-three of the patients have been hospitalized and one child has died.

“Thank you, moms and dads, for being patriots and making sure that we’re not giving experimental vaccines to our children and we’re protecting medical freedom,” Schatzline said. “Let’s keep going for faith, for family, for freedom.”

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This article appears in Mar 5-18, 2025.