Plot
In 1987, the once-idyllic Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey, has deteriorated due to drug trade and other rampant crime therein. Most of the student body cannot pass basic skills testing (62% failed the previous year); even the teachers are not safe from gang violence. Mayor Don Bottman learns that EHS will be turned over to the state administration, unless 75% of the students can pass the "BEAST" (that is, the State Minimum Basic Skills Test). He consults with school superintendent Dr. Frank Napier, who suggests they hire elementary school principal Joe Louis Clark -- a former Eastside teacher, who was forcibly transferred 2 decades earlier -- as the new school principal. Reluctantly, Bottman hires "Crazy Joe".
Clark promptly makes radical changes; these include expelling 300 students identified as drug dealers/users, mob contacts, and other troublemakers. He also institutes programs to improve school spirit, such as painting over graffiti-covered walls, and requiring students to learn the school song on pain of detention or worse. When expelled pusher Brian Banes is found beating up fellow student Kid Ray, Clark makes a citizen's arrest. He orders the school doors to be chained shut during school hours, since there are insufficient funds for security doors.
Clark's actions have a positive effect on his students. He encounters Thomas Sams, a freshman expelled for smoking crack and cutting class (actually, he was trapped in his locker by one of the school bullies). Sams convinces Clark to give him another chance to clean up his act and redeem himself; Clark is secretly elated that even one of the students he "expurgated" has seen the proverbial light. Clark reunites another student -- Kaneesha Carter, whom he has known since her grammar school days -- with her estranged mother.
Other parents react strongly to these measures...particularly Leonna Barrett, whose own son was among the expelled students. She presses Bottman to oust Clark, whose radicalism brings him into conflict with his own faculty -- notably English teacher Larry Darnell and music teacher Mrs. Elliott, both of whom Clark fires for perceived insubordination. Napier lectures Clark over these incidents, demanding that he act as a team player; accordingly, Clark rehires Darnell but warns him "Don't get used to being right."
When a practice BEAST fails to garner enough passing students (33% instead of the needed 75), Clark confronts his staff for failing to educate their students...or to prepare them for the post-high school world. Assistant Principal Joan Levias subsequently confronts Clark -- demanding that he transfer her to another school, since she has had all she can take of his "hurtful" attitude and treatment of those who work with him. Clark institutes a tutorial program to strengthen academic skills; he also encourages remedial reading courses on Saturdays, which parents may attend with their children if they want (or need) to.
When the day of the BEAST finally arrives, Clark gives his better-prepared students a speech which fills them with a sense of self-worth. Touched by all of this, Mrs. Levias changes her mind about the transfer which Clark offered her. Before the scores can be calculated, however, local Fire Chief Gaines raids Eastside 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 Barrett, a newly appointed member of the school board, leads the call for Clark's removal.
The students demand that Clark be released from jail and retained as principal. Bottman has Clark released from jail so that he may urge the children to return home for their own safety. He is interrupted by Mrs. Levias, who reports that more than 75% of the students have passed the BEAST. He announces the results over his megaphone.
As a result, the school's current administration remains intact. Clark, who is allowed to stay on as principal, cheerfully adds that Bottman "can tell the state to go to hell!" The students welcome Clark back by breaking into their school song. The film ends with Eastside's senior class, including Thomas Sams, graduating amid the closing credits as Clark hands them their diplomas.
Television adaptation
On September 13, 2018, it was reported that a television series based on the film was in development at The CW. The Warner Bros. Television Studios project was written by Wendy Calhoun, with LeBron James, Maverick Carter, John Legend, Mike Jackson and Ty Stiklorius also set to executive produce. The female-led drama was to center around "when a spirited young black teacher [named] Amarie Baldwin scores the principal job at an Akron, Ohio, public high school, she must dig deep to transform a failing campus into an urban oasis. In a time when education and school safety have life-or-death stakes, Amarie will take on a broken system that tests her mettle, love life and family. But can she keep her moxie in check in order to embody the aspirational educator that motivates and uplifts an entire community?" [5] On February 8, 2019, it was revealed that the script was not picked up to be a television pilot. [6]
