Lean on Me is a 1989 American biographical drama film written by Michael Schiffer, directed by John G. Avildsen and starring Morgan Freeman. 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. This film's title refers to the 1972 Bill Withers song of the same name, which is used in the film. Parts of the film, including the elementary school scenes, were filmed in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.
Plot[]
By 1987, the once successful Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey, has deteriorated due to drugs and crime running rampant throughout the school. The majority of students cannot pass basic skills testing, and even the teachers are not safe from gang violence.
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. He consults with school superintendent Dr. Frank Napier (Robert Guillaume), who suggests they hire Joe Clark (Morgan Freeman), a former teacher of Eastside High who was fired due to budget cuts, as the new school principal. Reluctantly, the mayor hires Clark.
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. 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.
Clark's actions begin to have a positive effect on his students. He encounters Thomas Sams (Jermaine Hopkins), a young student expelled for crack use, who pleads to be allowed back into school. Clark brings Thomas up onto the roof of the school where he viciously berates him for using crack, going as far as to force him to jump off the edge of the building. A hysterical Thomas refuses and gradually reforms himself. Clark also reunites one of his old elementary school students, Kaneesha Carter (Karen Malina White), with her estranged mother.
Some parents react strongly to these measures, including Leonna Barrett (Lynne Thigpen), the mother of one of the expelled students, who presses the mayor to oust Clark. Clark's radicalism causes him to come into conflict with members of the faculty, particularly English teacher Mr. Darnell (Michael Beach), whom Clark suspends for picking up a piece of trash during a recital of the school song, and choir teacher Mrs. Elliot (Robin Bartlett), whom Clark fires for being insubordinate after he cancels a pre-planned choral event, the school's upcoming annual Lincoln Center concert. Napier sets Clark straight over these incidents and lectures him to start being a team player; Clark subsequently re-instates Mr. Darnell.
Unfortunately, a practice basic skills test fails to garner enough passing students. Clark confronts his staff for their failure to educate their students and to prepare them for the world. He institutes a tutorial program to strengthen academic skills and encourages remedial reading courses on Saturdays which parents may attend alongside their children.
When the minimum basic skills test is finally assessed, the students are much better prepared and filled with a sense of self-worth. Before the results can arrive, the fire chief raids the school and discovers the chained doors. Clark is arrested for violating fire safety codes. That evening, the students gather at the meeting of the Paterson Board of Education, where school board member Leona Barrett is leading the call for Clark's removal.
The students demand that Clark be released from jail and retained as principal. The mayor has Clark released from jail to urge the children to return home for their own safety. He is then interrupted by assistant principal Ms. Levias who reports that more than 75% of the students have passed the basic skills test. He announces the results over his megaphone.
As a result, the school's current administration remains intact, and Clark is allowed to keep his job as principal, as he cheerfully informs the mayor to tell the state to "go to hell". The students break into their school song in celebration. The film ends with the senior students graduating high school and Clark handing them their diplomas.