Lean on Me (1989)

Beverly Todd: Ms. Levias

Photos 

Quotes 

• Joe Clark : I'll tell you what I do see here...

  Ms. Levias : No! I'm talking now! Let me finish! Everybody here may not like you as a person, but we all applaud your efforts. But what you don't understand is the same people that support you are the ones you're beating up! You don't even take the time to say 'Thank you. Job well done'. Nothing! You just step on their necks! Constantly abuse them!

  Joe Clark : Ms. Levias...

  Ms. Levias : Criticize them!

  Joe Clark : What do you want from me?

  [Faces her] 

  Joe Clark : What the HELL do you want?

  Ms. Levias : I want you to get this straight! Most of the teachers here are here because they care! About those children out there! This school, this fight, they are in it with you! They take it home at night, the same as you! They are a part of those children's lives! You are thoughtless and cruel, and it hurts! And none of them deserve it! They are sick of it, and so am I!

• Ms. Levias : [as Mr. Clark is walking down a hallway, she is running up to him]  Mr. Clark!

  Joe Clark : Yes, Ms. Levias?

  Ms. Levias : May I talk to you for a minute please?

  Joe Clark : What is it?

  Ms. Levias : I want you to transfer me.

  Joe Clark : To where?

  Ms. Levias : Out of here!

  Joe Clark : You know, this doesn't surprise me one bit, Ms. Levias. I have sensed resistance in you since our very first meeting.

  Ms. Levias : You're an egomaniacal windbag

  Joe Clark : Who are you talking to?

  Ms. Levias : I'm talking to you! You like to whip people who can't fight back. I thought I could take it because I had a father in the same kind of pain that makes you just a bastard, but I was wrong. Life is much too short. I will NOT endure you any longer!

  Joe Clark : You will not endure me?

  Ms. Levias : The reason I haven't walked out and half the staff along with me is because those children need us here! You're so busy talking discipline that you fail to educate!

  Joe Clark : Is THAT SO?

  Ms. Levias : YES!

  Joe Clark : What in the hell do you think I've been doing here all this time?

  Ms. Levias : So you cleaned it up. That was the easy part.

  Joe Clark : That's the easy part?

  Ms. Levias : Those children want to be helped! They've worked their hearts out for you, done everything you asked them to, believed what we told them. But I feel sorry for them! They're not ready to take that test!

  Joe Clark : What the hell are you talking about? I have done everything, everything I...

  Ms. Levias : I, I, I! It is always I! There are 300 teachers on the faculty here, you do NOT do it alone!

  Joe Clark : [walking away]  I don't have to stand here and listen to these accusations!

  Ms. Levias : You will listen! YOU WILL STAND THERE AND YOU WILL LISTEN!

  Joe Clark : [stops and faces her]  Why, Mrs. Levias? Huh? Go ahead and talk!

  Ms. Levias : For the past seven months, you've been flapping your mouth and you haven't heard a thing. You haven't even seen what's painfully obvious!

• [after seeing the dilapidated, crime-infested interior of Eastside High School, Joe Clark, the new elected principal, is introduced to the school board] 

  Mr. O'Malley : We want to welcome Mr. Clark to Eastside - we've heard so much about you - and to tell you what we've done in anticipation of your arrival. Ms. Levias, your other vice-principal, and I have appointed an executive committee to oversee certain areas where we have noted a need for improvement. Mr. Zirella, for example...

  Joe Clark : [cuts him off]  You may sit down, Mr. O'Malley.

  [Mr. O'Malley takes a seat] 

  Joe Clark : [addresses the teachers and the board]  You think you run this school? If you could, then I wouldn't be here, would I? No one talks in my meetings. No one! You take out your pencils and write. I want the names of every hoodlum, drug dealer, and miscreant who's done nothing but take this place apart on my desk by noon today. Reverend Slappy?

  Rev. Slappy : Yes, sir.

  Joe Clark : You are now the Chief Custodian, Reverend Slappy. You will scour this building clean. Graffiti goes up, it's off the next day. Is that clear?

  Rev. Slappy : Yes, sir. The very next day.

  Joe Clark : Detention students can help you. Let them scrub this place for a while. And tear down those cages in the cafeteria. You treat them like animals, that exactly how they'll behave.

  Joe Clark : [to the new head of security]  This is my new Dean of Security, Mr. William Wright. He will my Avenging Angel, as you teachers reclaim the halls. This is an institution of learning, ladies and gentlemen. If you can't control it, how can you teach? Discipline is not the enemy of enthusiasm! Mr. Zirella?

  Mr. Zirella : [stands up]  Yes, sir.

  Joe Clark : Mr. Zirella, you are my new head football coach. Mr. Darnell? Stand up, Mr. Darnell.

  [Mr. Darnell stands up] 

  Joe Clark : Mr. Darnell will be your assistant. You know why you're being demoted, Mr. Darnell? Because I'm sick and tired of our football team getting push all over the field. Thank you, sit down!

  [He does] 

  Joe Clark : I want *precision*. I want *a weight program*. And if you don't like it, Mr. Darnell, you can QUIT! Same goes for the rest of you. You've tried it your way for years, and 60% your students - excluding those with criminal records - 60% of them can't even pass the state's Minimum Basic Skills Test. THAT MEANS THEY CAN BARELY READ! They've given me one school year - less than 12 months - to turn this place around, to get those test scores up, so that the state will not take us over to perform the task which YOU have failed to do: TO EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN! Forget about the way it used to be. This is not a damn democracy! We are in a state of emergency and my word is law! There's only one boss around in this place. And that's me, the H.N.I.C. Are there any questions?

  [the board becomes silent] 

  Joe Clark : Mr. Wright, with me.

  [Both leave the meeting room] 

  Mr. O'Malley : [to Ms. Levias]  The H.N.I.C.?

  Ms. Levias : The Head Nigger In Charge.

• Thomas Sams : Hey, Mr. Clark, what did they get you for?

  Ms. Levias : What's the charge? What's this all about?

  Leonna Barrett : It's about someone finally standing up to this man, instead of taking his orders like a maid.

  Ms. Levias : How dare you speak about people like that? Who do you think you are?

  Joe Clark : [while taken in handcuffs by the fire chief and other police officers]  Mrs. Barrett, if you think you can...

  Leonna Barrett : Shut up! You're finished!

  [holds up the tape recorder] 

  Leonna Barrett : The school board's going to hear this at 7:00, and we are going to vote your black ass out!

  Thomas Sams : Yo, bitch! Vote on THIS!

  [gestures angrily] 

  Joe Clark : Sams, you go to class!