"Lean On Me" - Joe Clark, a Real-Life Villain?

Okay, so I just re-watched "Lean On Me" (again!), and while I appreciate the overall message of discipline and tough love, something's been bugging me for years. We're obviously supposed to be rooting for Principal Joe Clark, right? Like, he's the hero saving Eastside High. But the more I analyze it, the more I think he's actually kind of...the bad guy? Hear me out. The whole aesthetic of his methods is kinda terrifying. The baseball bat, chaining the doors... it seemed extreme. He literally expels hundreds of students to raise test scores! Legally, that's pretty suspect. And sure, the school improves academically, maybe, but at what cost? What happened to those kids he kicked out? Were they just written off? I'm not saying the school wasn't a mess before, but his solutions felt way too authoritarian for me. I mean, think about the scene where he confronts the drug dealers – the aggressive closeups and the use of silence before he makes sure everyone hears him are the traits of a heavy. Maybe the real story is that the movie subtly shows how good intentions pave the road to hell, or at least, to some ethically gray areas. It's easy to say 'the ends justify the means,' but when the means involve potentially ruining the lives of hundreds of teenagers, I think we need to question whether those ends are truly worth it. I think the framing of Freeman's acting as a good guy kinda biases the way people view it. Does anyone else feel this way? I'd love to hear your thoughts! I know this is a classic, and maybe I'm overthinking it, but every time I watch, it just gets amplified.