Is ‘A Teacher’ based on true story? How close is it to Mary Kay LeTourneau who raped 12-year-old and had his babies
Fatal attraction and sex... That's what sparks a relationship between a teacher and student in Hannah Fidell's ‘A Teacher’. The FX on Hulu show follows the love story of Claire Wilson (Kate Mara), a young teacher at a suburban Texas high school and her student, Eric Walker (Nick Robinson).
Beautiful and enigmatic, Claire steps into Westerbrook High School and sparks a friendship with Eric. Dissatisfied in her marriage to her college sweetheart Matt Mitchell (Ashley Zukerman), distant from her brother Nate Wilson (Adam David Thompson) and desperate for connection, she quickly befriends fellow teacher, Kathryn Sanders (Marielle Scott). When Eric asks for help preparing for his SAT test, boundaries are crossed, and a subtle game of grooming begins.
Their choices soon dismantle and destroy their lives in a way that cannot be repaired. Directed by Fidell along with Gillian Robespierre and Andrew Neel, the 10-episodic series highlights a predatory affair as the 30-something married woman sways him into sexy compulsions. She is in a position of authority and he is a minor, and even though she may be unaware of her grooming behavior, their relationship translates into an exploitative episode.
Is the series based on a true story?
Sprinkled with sexual fantasy and romantic idiosyncrasies, the series makes you think back to all the teacher-student scenarios in both reel and real life. Based on Fidell's 2013 independent film of the same name, it circles around the high school teacher's illicit sexual relationship with a male student that turns from infatuation into an obsession. But is the TV show based on a real-life scenario, or inspired by a true story?
The makers haven't really spoken or hinted at any connection with real events, but we can draw a parallel to the infamous case from the late 1990s -- Mary Kay LeTourneau and Vili Fualaau. Does that ring a bell? Although each story has its own essence and is in no way connected to another, there seem to be many staggering similarities.
Letourneau had been a married mother-of-four and a well-respected sixth-grade teacher at the Shorewood Elementary School in the Seattle suburb of Burien when she met a 12-year-old schoolboy, Vili Fualaau. While their relationship started as platonic, it turned sexual in March 1997 and she was arrested after her then-husband, Steve contacted the authorities. But over the next few years, she repeatedly shirked court orders to keep away from Fualaau and twice became pregnant with his children before he was 15.
Who was Mary Kay Letourneau?
A controversial and infamous Washington teacher sentenced to more than seven years in prison for raping a 12-year-old student, Mary Kay Letourneau was born in 1962 in Tustin, California, to chemist mother Mary E and community college instructor father John G Schmitz. First married to fellow student Steve LeTourneau at Arizona State University, their marriage was a failure with extramarital affairs from both sides. Her attorney and former neighbor, David Gehrke, told the Los Angeles Times that she was "emotionally and physically abused by her husband" during their marriage and twice "went to the hospital for treatment, and police were called".
In ‘A Teacher’, we see Claire and Matt's broken marriage — which may seem perfect from the outside but it lacked connection or communication. In LeTourneau's case, she taught the sixth-grade students at Shorewood Elementary School in the Seattle suburb of Burien and got involved with a 12-year-old schoolboy named Vili Fualaau in her class. In the summer of 1996, their relationship went from platonic to sexual. Their relationship was hardly a secret. If rumors are to be believed, they were once caught on school grounds.
The series, meanwhile, introduces Claire as an English teacher who taught seniors and her student, Eric, is believed to be 17 years old. Although the legal age may be 18 years worldwide, the age of consent in Texas is 17. Moreover, it was he who took the first step and hinted at having a sexual relationship.
Were the two caught?
Gregg Olsen, author of the book 'If Loving You Is Wrong' called LeTourneau a "child molester". According to CBS News National, Olsen said, "A janitor caught them in the stall, in a bathroom stall at one point. Other teachers saw them kiss," and described that in a 1995 video from a school holiday party, Vili was seen in a black tank top. In a year, she was pregnant and was sentenced to two counts of felony second-degree rape of a child. However, she reached a plea agreement for six months in jail, with three months suspended, and no contact with Fualaau for life among other terms.
Talking about the scandalous affair, Olsen then said, "They released her, and of course the second she got out, she went back to him." On February 5, 1998, she was caught in a car and LeTourneau was pregnant — once again. She was told to serve seven-and-a-half years behind the bars. Eight months into the prison, she got pregnant with another child.
While we may not want to give out any spoilers, the trailers do reveal how their lives were wrecked after the revelation. In a one-minute teaser, Claire gets a call saying, "We know the whole story." In the next scene, she explains, "I wanted to feel free... I wanted to do what I wanted for the first time in my life." However, voices in the same trailer say, "He's your student... That's like a monumental abuse of power."
Was Vili Fualaau a victim?
Back then, Vili didn't feel he was a victim. In an interview with Inside Edition, he said, "I'm not a victim. I'm not ashamed of being a father. I'm not ashamed of being in love with Mary Kay." While Fualaau's identity was kept hidden earlier, he soon opened up to the press and told Washington TV station KIRO that LeTourneau's pregnancy was planned. "We made a plan. The only way to keep us together was to have a baby, so that baby would remind me of her." Once their second child, Georgia, was born, he spilled the secret of their relationship in a 1999 French book 'Un suel crime, l'amour (Only One Crime, Love)'.
In May 1999, while she was imprisoned for child rape, LeTourneau divorced her husband and he gained custody of their four children. Once released from prison, she rekindled her affair with Vili — who was an adult by then. At 21, he persuaded the court to reverse the restrainment order and the pair got married in 2005. At that time, attorney Anne Bremner claimed that LeTourneau considered her relationship with Fualaau to be "eternal and endless" and said, "Nothing could have kept the two of them apart."
The two, however, divorced after 14 years, with the latter reportedly changing his mind about their relationship. "He [Fualauu] sees things clearly now, and realizes that this wasn't a healthy relationship from the start," a source claimed. As the 10-episodic series is telecasted, we may find out what happens in Claire and Eric's case and whether or not he dubs himself as a "victim".
‘A Teacher’ premieres on Tuesday, November 10, 2020, from 3 am ET on FX on Hulu with three back-to-back episodes. More episodes in the 10-episodic series will follow every week starting from Tuesday, November 17, 2020.