Eastside High Principal Joe Clark - UPI Archives (2024)

PATERSON, N.J. -- When Joe Clark took over Eastside High, he greeted knife-packing, dope-dealing students with a bullhorn.

'I am your new principal, Joe Clark. This is the new Eastside High School,' he boomed. 'What was, exists no more. Get to your classrooms. Please walk to the right.'

Since that September morning in 1982, Eastside has gone from being a blackboard jungle of gangs fights and terror to an inner-city school of discipline and academic achievement. And Clark has gone from being another faceless school administrator to being applauded by the president of the United States.

But also since that day, some rules and laws have been bent if not broken by Clark, who six years ago was the only one who'd volunteer to take the principal's job at the violent school.

Viewed as a miracle worker by some and a dictator by others, Clark is now in a battle with a newly elected school board that says he must obey its orders and state law.

'Liberals! Liberals don't like me. I tell them, 'Go to hell!' scoffs Clark, 48, a one-time Army sergeant who hangs a sign on his office door that reads: 'One Way -- My Way.'

This month, the board rebuked Clark for expelling 60 students without 'due process.' Clark says he removed the students, many 19 and 20 years old 'adults,' because they had been in school for years but still had less than half the credits needed for graduation and were nothing more than disruptive 'leeches.'

He also has sidestepped contempt of court charges for chaining the school house doors to keep out drug dealers and intruders in violation of fire codes. On Jan. 11 those charges were dismissed when Clark promised to comply.

Clark now carries a baseball bat, along with his bullhorn, in his black and hispanic school of 3,000 students. He told cheering students at a pro-Clark pep rally 'I'll beat the hell' out of any drug dealer who enters.

School Board President Judy Moran isn't cheering. She says, 'Joe Clark must obey the law, just like everyone else.' The board began disciplinary action against Clark that could lead to a fine, reprimand or even suspension.

Gary Bauer, President Reagan's chief domestic policy adviser, says if the school board 'is foolish enough' to get rid of Clark, he can have a job with the White House Domestic Policy Council.

'Joe Clark embodies what President Reagan and Education Secretary William Bennett have been saying about education,' said Bauer. 'I hope Joe Clark is able to stay at Eastside because inner city schools need more people like him.'

Peter Tirri, president of Paterson's teachers union, says if Clark accepts the White House job, 'I'm willing to buy him a plane ticket' to get him out of town. 'This guy is a despot.'

Clark declined the job Friday, but agreed to be an unpaid consultant on urban affairs.

In six years Tirri's union has filed 50 grievances against Clark, ranging from charges he publicly ridiculed teachers to allegations of unfair labor practices.

Shrugs Clark, 'I make teachers work. Before they didn't have to.'

Eastside teachers support Clark. Some describe him as a savior and others say he is the reason they teach there.

Hollywood is interested in Joe Clark, considering a movie about him. Clark says, 'Bill Cosby has read the script and likes it.'

From that first September day in 1982, Clark has patrolled hallways with his bullhorn, exchanging greetings and handshakes with students and exhorting them to excel. Those who don't try draw Clark's wrath.

'Let's get to class people, let's move,' Clark says on a recent patrol. 'Big Rod -- what's up? ... Anthony (17), how's your wife and child? ... How you doing Baby, your hair looks nice? ... Hi Stretch, when's your first game?'

A steamed Clark marches up to a freshman with high absentism. 'You failed everything. Correct. Seven 'F.' What's wrong with you? Are you waiting to get kicked out? I'll be in contact with your momma.'

Clark, one of the first black administrators in this industrial city of 140,000 people, says, 'You've got to keep on these kids. It is a constant struggle. They want discipline and I give it to them.'

Most students at Eastside are from welfare families. Few have fathers. 'I'm a father figure for many of them because they believe in me.... I've saved a lot of souls,' says Clark.

'Most students at Eastside respectMr. Clark. I love Mr. Clark. He's for the student,' says Tasha Thompson, 15, an honor student. 'If you have a problem, you can go to Mr. Clark.'

Clark maintains that the key to a good school is a good principal, one with wide authority to do what is necessary and willing to devote the energy to accomplish it.

'Lethargy on the part of the principal is the most flagrant factor in inferior education at our urban schools. For the most part, urban administrators are indifferent, indecisive and often unwilling to take a state or make unpopular decisions,' says Clark.

'They are responsible for the destruction of the lives of students. Discipline is only a means to an end. And that end is is an improved education.'