Lean on Me1989

Ms. Levias:
Mr. Clark.

Mr. Clark:
Yes, Ms. Levias?

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

Mr. Clark:
What do you want?

Ms. Levias:
I want you to transfer me.

Mr. Clark:
To where?

Ms. Levias:
Out of here.

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

Ms. Levias:
You're an egomanical windbag.

Mr. 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 such a bastard, but I was wrong. Life is much too short. I will not endure you any longer!

Mr. Clark:
You will not endure me!?

Ms. Levias:
The only reason I haven't walked out and half the staff along with me is because those children need us here.

Mr. Clark:
Oh, the children need you?

Ms. Levias:
You're so busy talking discipline, you forget to educate!

Mr. Clark:
Is that so? Then what the hell do you think I've been doing all this time?

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

Mr. Clark:
That's the easy part?

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

Mr. Clark:
What the hell are you talking about? I have done everything——

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

Mr. Clark:
[begins to walk 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!

Mr. Clark:
All right, Ms. Levias. All right, 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.

Mr. Clark:
I'll tell you what I DO see, lady——

Ms. Levias:
NO! I'M talking now! Let me finish! Everybody here may not like you as a person, but we all applaud your effort. But what you don't understand is that the same people who support you are the ones that you're beating up! You don't even take the time to say, "Thank You", "Job Well Done", nothing. You just step in their necks, constantly abuse them, criticize them.

Mr. Clark:
(walks towards Ms. Levias) Ms. Levias, what do you want from me? What the HELL do you want?!

Ms. Levias:
I want you to get this straight. Most of the teachers that are 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 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.