Throughout the film Lean On Me(1989), Principal Joe Clark is portrayed as someone who always has to have things done his way. He was an unorthodox teacher who returns as principal to the chaotic Eastside High School, from which he had earlier been fired, to find it full of drug sale and abuse, violence, and urban despair. Many people including some city officials did not see it possible for him to change the school around from a school of delinquents and degenerates to a more clean and respectable school and raise the students’ basic test scores as well. He was the leader that the school desperately needed. Eventually his successful but unorthodox methods lead to a dispute with the city officials who threaten to undo all his efforts. He is constantly shown ordering his subordinates around and removing or firing the ones that do not do exactly as he says. This is not always the case because during some scenes in the movie he decides to change his methods according to someone else’s suggestion or finds a compromise between the two issues. The movie shows mostly the negative side of Joe Clark which is not how the real Clark lived.
In this scene where Principal Joe Clark finds Thomas Sams and his friends in the bathroom who were supposed to learn the school song, he makes all five of the students recite the East Side High School song or the…show more content… He was an unusual person who is the principal at the chaotic Eastside High School which is full of drug sale and abuse, violence, and urban despair. Through his extreme unorthodox methods he completely turns the school around. He is constantly shown ordering his subordinates around and removing or firing the ones that do not do exactly as he says. This is not always the case because during some scenes in the movie he is shown showing forgiveness and compassion to his subordinates and some of the
