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Legendary N.J. principal, who inspired the film ‘Lean on Me,’ dies at 82
Updated Dec 31, 2020;
Posted Dec 30, 2020
Joe Clark, the retired principal of Eastside High School in Paterson, where he gained fame and criticism for his iron rule, is pictured in this Star-Ledger file photo from July 2000. At the time, he was working as the director of the Essex County Juvenile Detention Center.Patti Sapone
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Joe Louis Clark, the former bat-wielding principal of Paterson’s Eastside High School whose strict disciplinary methods inspired the 1989 film “Lean On Me,” died Tuesday at the age of 82, his family said.
Clark, a longtime resident of South Orange, retired to Gainesville, Florida, died surrounded by his family at his home after a long battle with an illness, they said.
Derick Waller reports on the 14-year-old speaking out about the incident.
At the crime- and drug-ridden school, Clark once expelled 300 students in a single day for fighting, vandalism, abusing teachers and drug possession. That lifted the expectations of those who remained, continually challenging them to perform better.
Clark s unorthodox methods won him both admirers and critics nationwide, and President Ronald Reagan offered him a White House policy adviser position after his success at the high school.
Freeman starred as Clark in the 1989 film Lean on Me that was loosely based on Clark s tenure at Eastside.
After he retired from Eastside in 1989, Clark worked for six years as the director of Essex County Detention House, a juvenile detention center in Newark. He also wrote Laying Down the Law: Joe Clark s Strategy for Saving Our Schools, detailing his methods for turning around Eastside High.