Clark also reunites one of his old elementary school students, Kaneesha Carter ( Karen Malina White), with her estranged mother. Clark is (secretly) elated, when the now-hysterical Sams refuses to jump and proceeds to turn himself around. Clark escorts Sams up to the roof of the school there he viciously berates the boy for using crack, demanding that he jump off the edge of the building. He encounters Thomas Sams ( Jermaine Hopkins), a young student expelled for crack use, who pleads to be allowed back into school. When one of the expelled students is found beating up another student, Clark orders the doors of the school chained shut during school hours since funds are insufficient to purchase security doors.Ĭlark's actions begin to have a positive effect on his students. Known as 'Crazy Joe', Clark's immediate radical changes include expelling 300 students identified as drug dealers or abusers and troublemakers, instituting programs to improve school spirit including painting over graffiti-covered walls, and requiring students to learn the school song, and be punished if they cannot sing it on demand. Frank Napier ( Robert Guillaume), who suggests they hire Joe Clark ( Morgan Freeman), a former teacher of Eastside High who was forcibly transferred years before due to budget cuts, as the new school principal. He consults with school superintendent Dr. Mayor Bottman ( Alan North) learns that the school will be turned over to state administration unless 75% of the students can pass the minimum basic skills test. The majority of students cannot pass basic skills testing, and even the teachers are not safe from gang violence. In 1987, the once idyllic Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey, has deteriorated due to drug abuse and crime running rampant throughout the school. Parts of the film, including the elementary school scenes, were filmed in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.

This film's title refers to the 1972 Bill Withers song of the same name, which is used in the film. It is based on the story of Joe Louis Clark, a real life inner city high school principal in Paterson, New Jersey, whose school is in danger of being placed into receivership of the New Jersey state government unless students improve their test scores on the New Jersey Minimum Basic Skills Test.

Lean on Me is a 1989 American biographical drama film written by Michael Schiffer, directed by John G.

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