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Award-winning playwright David Mamet recently came under fire for saying that teachers are “inclined” towards p*dophilia and that students are often “groomed” at schools.
The 74-year-old appeared on Fox News’ Life, Liberty & Levin recently and made the comments while discussing the necessity of “community control” and Florida’s controversial “Don’t Say G*y” bill, which limits discussions of “s*xual orientation or gender” in schools. He said,
“We have to take back control. If there’s no community control of the schools, what we have is kids being not only indoctrinated but groomed in a very real sense by people who are — whether they know it or not — s*xual predators.”
He went on to claim that children are also being mentally abused by teachers in schools. He claimed,
“Are they abusing the kids physically? No, I don’t think so, but they are abusing them mentally and using s*x to do so. This has always been the problem with education, is that teachers are inclined, particularly men because men are predators, to p*dophilia.”
Mamet also referred to “people in power” as “parasites” and said,
“People have gone nuts and people are frightened because there’s huge changes in society, that are brought about by the people in power. The people in power, as always, are to a large extent, parasites who are feeding off of the decaying flesh.”
The playwright further added that the society needs to get “pruned” and the “diseased parts” needs to be “cut off” to achieve “freedom” through “individual control” of own destiny.
Mamet did not provide any specific evidence to back up his claims and also did not face any challenges regarding his opinion from host Mark Levin. The former reportedly appeared on Fox News to promote his new book Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch.
Twitter reacts to David Mamet’s controversial remarks on teachers
A video documenting David Mamet’s controversial statement about teachers, which was widely circulated on social media, sparked major backlash online. As per Yahoo News, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called Mamet's opinion “a repulsive demonization.”
He said,
"This demonization of teachers is dangerous for our educators and for their students, and it must stop. In the meantime, teachers will keep doing their jobs to create opportunity and joy for every child in this country, and that overcomes anger, fear and gross misinformation every time.”
David Finkelhor, head of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, added that although the majority of child abusers, but not all, are mostly male, schools are “not particularly high risk environments.”
He added,
“More of the adult s*xual abusers in a child’s life come from family, family friends, acquaintances and neighbors.”
As Mamet’s remarks went viral online, several people also took to Twitter to call out the playwright.
As backlash continues to pour in online, it remains to be seen if David Mamet will address the situation in the days to come.
Everything to know about David Mamet
David Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter, author, and filmmaker. He was born to Bernard Mamet and Lenore June on November 30, 1947, in Flossmoor, Illinois.
Mamet attended Goddard College in Vermont and the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater in New York and undertook numerous odd jobs before establishing a career in theater.
He first learned about his passion for theater through his Uncle Henry, who was a radio and TV producer for the Chicago Board of Rabbis. Henry cast Mamet in a few small roles and helped him get one of his first jobs as a busboy at Chicago-based comedy troupe Second City.
After spending several years as an actor and director, Mamet garnered considerable acclaim as a playwright for a series of off-Broadway plays in 1976, including The Duck Variations, S*xual Perversity in Chicago, and American Buffalo.
Following his work in The Woods and Edmond, Mamet received the Pulitzer Prize and Tony nominations for writing Glengarry Glen Ross and Speed-the-Plow. His plays Race and The Penitent also opened on Broadway and previewed off-Broadway in 2009 and 2017, respectively.
David Mamet has also written and directed popular films like Heist, House of Games, Homicide, and The Spanish Prisoner. Some of his other acclaimed screenplays include The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Untouchables, Hoffa, The Winslow Boy, Hannibal, and the Oscar and Golden Globe nominated Wag the Dog, among others.
He also served as a writer and executive producer on CBS TV show The Unit. In addition to his theater career, Mamet has reportedly taught at New York University, Goddard College, and the Yale Drama School.
On a personal front, David Mamet was married to actress Lindsay Crouse between 1977 and 1990. The couple share two children together, Willa and Zosia. Following their divorce, the playwright married singer-songwriter Rebecca Pidgeon in 1991. The duo also share two children together, Clara and Noah.
