Former child star Kirk Cameron has angered people online after he criticized the U.S. public school system, suggesting it produces "strippers."
Cameron starred in the sitcom Growing Pains in the 1980s and early 90s before becoming a well-known Christian conservative activist.
Hemant Mehta—author and atheist activist who runs the FriendlyAtheist.com podcast with Jessica Bluemke Greiff—shared a clip of the actor talking with podcaster Elizabeth Johnston for an episode titled The Radical Attack on Family Values ft. Kirk Cameron.
"Actor Kirk Cameron says if you send your kids to public schools, they'll come back as 'little Marxists, little statists, little atheists, drag queens, strippers, drug dealers... you name it,'" Mehta captioned the video he shared to X (formerly Twitter). At the time of writing, his post had been viewed 3.1 million times.
He was referring to a section during the chat with Johnston that Cameron denigrated the public school system, saying: "If we outsource our parenting because it's easier or we believe the lie that we're not qualified experts to educate our kids so we have to subcontract our parenting and discipleship out to the government, we're gonna have little kids that come back as little Marxists, little statists, little atheists, drag queens, strippers, drug dealers, and you name it."
Elsewhere in the interview, he complained about "woke" libraries and encouraged people to take their kids out of public schools in favor of home schooling, private schools and church educational coops. Now people are slamming the actor's comments online.
Newsweek emailed a spokesperson for Cameron for comment on Wednesday.
Matthew Sheffield, a "progressive writer & commentator," reshared Mehta's post and added: "Far right Christians hate public education. They need schools to be brainwashing centers in order to get any votes. Kids who are properly educated and have good mental health are well-protected from these predators."
"They HATE public schools and how they teach our kids to think outside of the Bible," someone else wrote.
"Kirk Cameron is a perfect example of how religion is a deleterious brain-rot that replaces love and compassion with blind rage and fear. It has NO business in our homes, much less our public schools," a different X user commented.
A fourth added: "FWIW [for what it's worth], my kids went to public school to learn how not to be Kirk Cameron."
Not everyone online is against the former child star, as one person wrote: "Thank you Kirk Cameron."
"I see Kirk Cameron has triggered the liberals again. I love to see it," said another.
This isn't the first time that Cameron has criticized public schools. In 2022, the same year he starred in the movie The Homeschool Awakening, he accused public schools of "grooming for sexual chaos" and "destroying the church."
It seems this was a busy year for Cameron, as this was the same year he claimed public libraries nationwide had not taken up his offer to host story time for his new faith-centered children's book, As You Grow.
The actor told Fox News that with his book he was "fighting back" against a toxic and "dangerous" culture for children.
"As Bibles are literally being removed from schools and libraries—and as Christianity, and faith, and the Ten Commandments are being taken out of schools and replaced with toxic ideas like transgenderism, CRT and the 1619 project, I'm looking to fight back," he said.
"I'm putting my new book—along with other books by Brave Books—into America's schools so that we can begin to rebuild those values and love for God, love for family, and love for country into the future generation."
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