Lean on Me

Other mistake: When Joe Clark first comes to Eastside High as principal, he takes it upon himself to confront the staff. At one point, as he begins to turn his back, watch his lips. His mouth does not match the words being spoken.

Other mistake: When Mrs. Barrett spoke out at the parent's meeting after the expulsion of the bad kids, she shouted out 'he insulted the black football coach'. Joe Clark insulted him at a staff meeting, and she wasn't there. How could she have possibly known about it?

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Because Clark demoted a black coach and replaced him with a white coach. Some black people would consider that an insult.

lartaker1975

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Mistakes

Factual error: In the scene where Joe Clark and the Vice Principal go to the project buildings to see the young girl's mother, they walk down a short ramp to an apartment. Those project buildings are in Paterson,N.J. (where the story takes place), but walking down that ramp takes you to the boiler room, not an apartment. None of those buildings have apartments like that.

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Trivia

Trivia: Although in real life Principal Joe Clark improved the discipline problems at Eastside High School, he did not, contrary to what the film has you believe, improve the academics in any meaningful way. Although test scores improved very slightly his first couple of years as principal (partly due to the fact that he expelled so many bad students) from 1986 to 1988, during his time as principal, Eastside High School had the lowest state exam passage rates in all of New Jersey. One of these years in particular, under Clark's tenure, Eastside High's passage rate was as low as 24.1%.

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Questions

Question: At the end after Clark tells the Mayor the state can go to Hell, it seems like there was a cut scene. Clark tells the students that he was not going anywhere. They then show scattered cheering before Clark ask the students, "Are you ready, maestro?" without any lead-in. Was there a deleted scene to describe what appears to be this gap?

lartaker1975

Answer: He actually said "are you ready my Ghosts (not Maestro)", but what I wondered is how he was able to just walk away after he was arrested.

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