How 'true' is this true story?

[deleted]

Well we do know Joe Clark really carried a horn and bat and nicknamed "Crazy Joe". Lol
We also know he chained the doors and got arrested.

On youtube I found an interview on the real Joe Clark and he discussed this.

As for the students and their altercations ( SAMs being a former drug dealer or Kanesha getting pregnant), I don't know

He did expel roughly 300 students but he did it over the course of a year. Fighting, cursing at teachers, etc were grounds for expulsion from the regular school. He also set up a separate alternative school from what I have read for those expelled from the regular school.

It was more a case of transferring or restriction than actually expelling or totally kicking students out of the school.

When I was in High School there was a room above the gym called " The Sweatbox ". It was reserved for the most disruptive students, it was very strict and harsh and was taught and controlled by the biggest and meanest teachers / coaches. You were restricted to that room all day, it had a bathroom but regular school areas were off limits.

Let's just say as a student you did not want to end up there.

This movie made whites look bad lol, cause in reality white people didn't give Clark any problems.

Graves, the mayor who assigned Clark, was nothing like Bottman in this movie.

What we really need is to hear from someone who attended that school, either when Joe Clark was principal, or sometime before he became principal. It would be awesome if an East Side alumnus posted on this board and told us if the movie was truly an accurate depiction of the school.

Here is an 1989 article from an LA Time reporter that worked in Hackensack who reported on Joe Clark and the liberties the movie takes. It should give you a good idea what is real and what is not. Like most biopics, it embellishes its subject matter.

http://articles.latimes.com/1989-03-03/entertainment/ca-285_1_joe-clark

MM