Nickaylah Sampson dreamed of following in the footsteps of her parents, Mathias and Natalie Sampson, by pursuing a career of service to her country as an officer in the U.S. Army. In 2020, she was appointed to West Point, one of the most prestigious military academies in the United States, where only about 10% of applicants are admitted annually.
The following year, as the COVID-19 shot was being mandated at West Point, Sampson and two of her friends, Hannah MacDonald and Willow Brown, chose to follow their Christian convictions and refuse to take it. They held that it was unlawful to be coerced into taking an experimental drug, especially one that they could see was causing serious injuries to young and healthy cadets at the academy.
Sampson and her friends experienced increasing levels of ridicule, ostracism, and other forms of punishment for not taking the shot. They were deeply disappointed that while they were making a commitment to protect the freedoms of American citizens and defend the U.S. Constitution, their freedom to choose and their bodily autonomy were being trampled.