A con is a derivative of a “confidence scheme,” a type of scam where someone will build confidence in their mark in order to rip them off. Sometimes it just takes a few minutes. Other times, it takes several months. In the end, they’ll get what they want if they choose their prey wisely. The reason some people may not experience abuse in a relationship with a partner, while another person might with the same partner, is because the abusive partner knows each person has limits and how far to push them.
It’s no wonder Roy Johnson seems to be both an abuser and a con artist. He’s also a narcississt, another sign of abusers. And after about an hour and a half of listening to him, you will never want to see him again. But the purpose of the documentary, BS High, directed by Martin Desmond Roe and Travon Free is to expose Johnson and people like him to unsuspecting prey. Johnson seems a lot like Joe Exotic, aka Joseph Allen Maldona, aka Tiger King. He knows just enough to keep his nose clean as how to rip people off and wash his hands of it.
The great sadness of the Bishop Sycamore High School scandal, which this documentary focuses on, was that the powers that be in Ohio, turned a blind eye for several reasons. The main one and this is one that journalist Bomani Jones points out, Johnson targeted lower-income African-American youths. Johnson is an African-American too when he started a school Christians of Faith Academy in 2018 that was shut down after one year following a federal investigation into fraud and counterfeit charges as well as others.
Johnson just rebranded the school as Bishop Sycamore despite an investigation by journalist Andrew King and Civil Rights investigator Ben Ferree who began to suspect something wasn’t right from the start. Even though Bishop Sycamore claimed to be a high school, hardly any of the “students” were in high school. Some had graduated and received their diplomas or GEDs. Ohio regulations stated no one can play high school football passed the age of 20, yet some players were old enough even to buy alcohol. Even though he had signed contracts with the Ohio High School Athletc Association (OHSAA), Johnson was claiming the school wasn’t really a school but modeled after Florida’s IMG Academy, which is actually a school.
At one point, Johnson refers to it as a high school hybred prep school. Johnson tried to do everything to say that it was and wasn’t a school. IMG is a private prepatory boarding school that does offer post-graduate/gap year programs for its attendees. However, there is a brick-and-motars facilty over 600-acres in Bradenton, Fla. Bishop Sycamore had none of that. The “students” stayed in hotels/motels, which they were constantly being kicked out of because Johnson didn’t pay the lodging fees and even had the “students” listed with the hotel under their names, which meant they were sued for failure to pay the lodging fees.
This is probably why he chose people who were 18 and over. Technically, they’re adults and don’t need parental signatures on anything. And that’s what Johnson was hoping for as he got them to fill out PPP Loans to cover the tuition for Bishop Sycamore which was around $12,000. Yet, they couldn’t get the equipment and often had to share helmets. One of the students, Trillian Harris, was using one his mother bought for him that wasn’t up to regulations. Footage shows it constantly being knocked off his head.
There were red flags from the start but since the “students” were still young they didn’t want to tell their parents, even though parents noted the food they were getting wasn’t all that appetizing. You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce that Johnson probably was taking whatever money he could and seeing how little he could spend with it. He talks about it proudly as if he’s excited saying he ordered dozens of rotissere chickens from a deli then didn’t get them until closing when he knows they’d be discountedn in price.
And while King and Ferree kept trying to tell Ohio officials and other sports journalists about Bishop Sycamore, it all was for naught until Aug. 29, 2021 when Bishop Sycamore played IMG in a football game televised on ESPN. The Bishop Centurions had played a game less than 48 hours before which led to the 58-0 blow-out by IMG. But it became apparent to everyone that Bishop Sycamore was not the top tiered school they claimed to be to take on IMG. At one point in the broadcast, the announcers started criticizing the Centurions.
From that moment on, all other teams the Centurions had scheduled to play the season was canceled and the players found themselves once again being kicked out of a hotel, this time for the last time as many went to their respective homes. But hearing Johnson try to backtrack and say that it never was a school or even say how proud he was that he was able to arrange the televised game with IMG is the classic trait of a narcissist.
Johnson doesn’t see for one minute anything he ever did was wrong. When watching his former players criticize him, he gets up and walks out screaming like he’s the victim. It’s the classic “Hero Complex” defense. He thinks he’s the one who sacrificed a lot – not them. But worse is when one of his players, Adrian “Pahokee” Brown Jr., recalls how Johnson intentionally hit about five geese crossing a road. Yet Johnson says it was an accident by hitting one and he made a joke about it. Brown calls Johnson “evil.”
His players also recount seeing him repeatedly abuse his girlfriend. A charge of assault and battery was filed on him for this but was amended to menacing and he pled to it. He also recalls happily assaulting a homeless man who tried to break into his car and getting his players to join in the assaults. A title card at the end claims he was arrested for shoplifting and using a different name. He’s also filed for bankruptcy claiming he owes to 17 creditors.
But really Johnson is just a cog in the corrupt system of school athletics. And after an investigation, Ohio really couldn’t do anything because there wasn’t anything on the books to prevent it. And Bishop Sycamore and its predecssor Christians of Faith were considered “Christian schools.” So, he’s able to pull the scam and claim religious exemption. It’s typical in America.
The Mid-West is the same as the South when it comes to football is big business, especially at the high school level. A lot of young people are getting no compensation for their efforts while coaches pull in six-figure salaries with benefits. Even at the college level, it’s illegal to accept anything that doesn’t go through a student-led booster club. I remember in college someone in the student athletic booster club saying they had to purchase pizzas from Papa John’s to give to the football players after they had a game earlier that day. Granted, football players aren’t starving to death but imagine someone not able to give you a bottled water and a packet of crackers without a detailed paper trail to cover both your butts.
The NCAA and other organizations have strict rules. I was at a Chamber of Commerce banquet where they were honoring the football players who had won a state title and someone paid an outrageous price for a cake during an auction and then gave it to the football players. It was a nice gesture but I’m sure some people might have thought it was a gift since the whole team wasn’t in attendance. I’ve seen people cook-out for the entire teams and it’s a kindly community gesture but the consequences from the Southern Methodist University scandal is still fresh on people’s minds.
Johnson isn’t an isolated incident. The system is rigged and there’s others out there who did the same thing but were smart enough to pay their bills and cross their t’s and dot their i’s. This is one of the main criticisms of charter schools and many states, such as Missouri, Arkanas and Oklahoma, are debating on whether education should be funded by taxpayers. Last Week Tonight With John Oliver did a whole show on this in 2016. Even public schools are corrupt and worse, prejudice. Most African-Americans know they can’t get ahead unless they go out for sports. Most come from communities where they can’t get into colleges because of the lack of support from counselors, coaches and administrators.
Johnson preyed on that. Others do too. This is why I will never cover athletics ever again. I did it for about a decade. I’ve seen the worst of the worst in how young men and women are treated by egotistical maniacs and narcississtic psychopaths. Sometimes a coach screaming at a player is nothing more than abuse. And the taxpayers are paying the bill. With CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) becoming more known and a lot of people being concerned for their child’s safety, the question of whether they’ll risk damage in high school and college to play in the majors is something more people are taking seriously.
The saddest part of the documentary is how Trillian Harris was able to work on applying to colleges only to be accepted by Grambling State University but have the offer rescinded when it was discovered his association with Bishop Sycamore. A lot of other players had to give up their dreams of playing football at college.
But in the end, you know that Johnson isn’t going to go quietly. He even says that this is only the beginning. Hopefully, it’s the beginning of the end of his con. I would also suggest the legislators in Ohio and other states try to get some laws on the books to prevent this, if they haven’t already.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 