GRPS: Fire Larry Johnson!
GRPS: Fire Larry Johnson!
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END TWO DECADES OF CORRUPTION & BULLYING.

END TWO DECADES OF CORRUPTION & BULLYING.END TWO DECADES OF CORRUPTION & BULLYING.END TWO DECADES OF CORRUPTION & BULLYING.

Join our effort to demand GRPS leaders act to clean house and truly "reimagine" our schools.

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GRPS COVERS FOR THEIR SHADOW-SUPERINTENDENT EVERY TIME

THIS IS "EQUITY?"

Johnson threatened a parent, and got to keep his job with a paid vacation and slap on the wrist. Leon Hendrix was fired for doing his job of community affairs properly, and whistle-blowing about the bumbling, toxic leadership of Dr. Roby. Meanwhile, we continued endangerment of our kids. Public outcry has been intense.

Larry's Wall of Shame

Threatening/Intimidation

Failed to secure our schools

Failed to secure our schools

Recently, Larry was given a paid, 3-week vacation, as a result of threatening a GRPS parent who dared question his performance. (This is the kind of non-punishment cops are used to, after all.)


This is on-brand for a man who once bullied a special needs student's mother during a school board meeting.

Failed to secure our schools

Failed to secure our schools

Failed to secure our schools

After allowing persistent issues with guns being snuck into Grand Rapids Public Schools for six months (or more, we may never know), Larry - the supposed world-renowned security expert - oversaw a knee-jerk reaction to ban backpacks and plunged our schools into chaos and fear for the remainder of the year, in a useless act of security theatre.

Mismanaged transportation

Failed to secure our schools

Mismanaged transportation

Inappropriate cronyism and corporate welfare is exemplified by the GRPS relationship with Dean Transportation, Larry has overseen continued decline in bus safety and reliability.


Recently, parents who have had enough sounded off at a public town hall he didn't even have the guts to attend.

Hijacking GRPS University

A Toxic Retaliation Culture

Mismanaged transportation

An incredible asset to our students' potential needs - GRPS University - sits mostly empty, rather than serving in any academic capacity. It houses a personal fiefdom of Larry's operations and staff. This building is part of gobsmacking one million excess square feet GRPS is sitting on, but while they've announced plans to ruin neighborhood schools (or just give up on them and shutter them) Larry's fortress goes untouched.

Blatant nepotism

A Toxic Retaliation Culture

A Toxic Retaliation Culture

In no other organization, save for a family business or other private venture like the silver-spoon corrupt empire of the DeVos family would it be considered ethical to employ your own wife (who covered Larry's leave) and child in your chain of command or areas of influence. GRPS allows Larry to do just that.


Our schools are not supposed to function like a family farm or a dynasty.

A Toxic Retaliation Culture

A Toxic Retaliation Culture

A Toxic Retaliation Culture

Ask any teacher or staffer how they feel about being free to openly share their fears, concerns, or complaints about anything GRPS - especially anything Larry oversees. They'll tell you they fear for their jobs (and in some cases, their safety).


Will we demand a fair and safe workplace for our already-underpaid and overworked teachers or allow a Mad Men era toxicity to prevail?

MISCONDUCT SUBSTANTIATED: Larry's recent discipline memo, showing no real punishment by Roby or the

See it for yourself

Ineffective & incompetent.

Larry's got to go.

Many problems challenge our schools in Grand Rapids. The ones that come down to our children's safety are the most critical - and they fall into Johnson's portfolio of failures.


Bus transportation in the district is in shambles, with the crony relationship between GRPS and Dean Transportation at the center of vast parent and taxpayer frustration. But that's not the worst of it. In recent months, our schools have been plagued by firearms being brought in by children, and Larry's "expert" security response was to have no plan for six months while our kids and cherished, underpaid educators were left at-risk.


When a plan was finally made, it was rushed in the course of one afternoon, released after school dismissal, poorly communicated to the public, and sprung on our principals and staff as an ambush. A sudden hurry after six months of inaction.


The plan? Ban backpacks.


That's like solving food fights by taking away the plates.

Image of a handwritten "F" on a notebook paper sheet.
Image of character Adonis Creed from the 'Creed' film franchise.

"The only way to deal with bullies is to stand up to them."

Keshia Knight Pulliam

An ex-cop is not who we need.

School-to-prison pipeline?

School-to-prison pipeline?

School-to-prison pipeline?

Image of a school bus in color parked in front of a prison observation toward, in grayscale.

Larry Johnson is not the right person to entrust with the oversight of discipline and security in the age of restorative justice and so much work being done to disrupt the school-prison nexus in all its forms. His chummy relationship with GRPD and other entities in a deeply-flawed profession borne of Slave Patrols does not inform any new thinking to be leveraged.

And speaking of busses...

School-to-prison pipeline?

School-to-prison pipeline?

Media image of school bus loading up Grand Rapids Police with a zoom oval revealing GRPS text.

The lock-step relationship between Larry, Dean Transportation, and our Grand Rapids Police Department (the same one with heaps of civil rights investigations open, and the breeding ground for accused murderer Chris Schurr) resulted in an entirely inappropriate misuse of a school bus as a delivery system for militarized police during the 2020 protests.

GRPS MUST...

Image of an exit sign.

Dismiss Johnson & eliminate the Chief of Staff role

Dismiss Johnson & eliminate the Chief of Staff role

Dismiss Johnson & eliminate the Chief of Staff role

The negative marks against Johnson should be enough to give our relatively new Superintendent and Board which includes newcomers with a clear political mandate) plenty of justification.


But now that Larry has crossed the line of threatening a parent, he should be far beyond any "last chance" efforts to protect him. Dr. Roby must stop her charade of placations and nothing-burger emails, and act.

Image of a person's hand with chalk, writing flow chart boxes on a chalk board.

Reorganize the GRPS structure & org chart

Dismiss Johnson & eliminate the Chief of Staff role

Dismiss Johnson & eliminate the Chief of Staff role

The organizational chart for GRPS exposes a vague hodgepodge of chaos and redundancy, with roles that should be critical to the top levels of the chain of command left to languish, buried under layers self-justifying, overpaid bureaucrats.


Elements of our schools such as security, transportation, health services/education, and the arts have been shut out of the top brass, and that must end.

Image of a magnifying glass leaning up on a laptop keyboard in a sunny room.

Institute stringent Superintendent accountability

Dismiss Johnson & eliminate the Chief of Staff role

Institute stringent Superintendent accountability

The current, accepted norm is for the Superintendent to hold power (unofficially) over the School Board, often controlling agendas and lording over conversations and topics in a manner unbecoming of a subordinate.


That's not how this works, and it is high time for GRPS leaders to remember who the boss is: the voters and our elected representatives. The Board should step up and "boss up."

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Frequently Asked Questions

Some common inquiries or concerns...

If GRPS is going to ask the community to help "reimagine" our schools, we must "reimagine" a system free of the brand of "leadership" Mr. Johnson demonstrates. Contributors to our call for Larry's firing range from those who've observed his antics for many years, to those newer in Grand Rapids who've encountered the first hand realities and litany of stories among parents and staff - and it all leads to one common refrain: it's about damn time.

This notion is irresponsible and dangerous. No person, regardless of their racial or ethnic traits, should be immune to criticism or consequences for their actions. Our movement is comprised of a diverse array of people willing to speak up - and everyone associated with this effort would gladly celebrate a person of better disposition and character, of any creed or color, as a leader.

No. The position of Chief of Staff is an invented role that should not be necessary at all, if a competent Superintendent is fully staffing a "cabinet" of Executive Directors handling each major area of education and administration needs. Most of those roles also have layers of unnecessary redundnacy under them. There is an adequate bench from which to promote, but the role of Chief of Staff should be eliminated, along with the ridiculous near-$200K pay that has come with it.


If this role, in all its waste and redundancy, were to be retained, it would make a lot more sense to at least fill it with a true HR Professional rather than someone whose skillsets are all derived from an embattled police department.

It has always been sinister and inapproaite for the Chief of Staff to also oversee security. One could say the same for overseeing transportation. Each of these should be roles filled by new talent, recruited from outside GRPS, to be free of the poison of the Johnson Regime. They should be ready and willing to apply great scrutiny to each area and clean house in their first six months to irradicate the influences of Larry's prior grip on these operations.

Larry's level of good works will always be a matter of opinion. It is a waste to debate that, in the face of his clear misdeeds, especially recently. However, we do not seek to ruin the man. Where appropriate, GRPS should feel free to include him in ongoing pension plans and if allowing him to "retire" is a way to save face and put this dark chapter behind us, that's adequate. The public record will always reveal the truth and history will know what actually happened.

Johnson's own wife serves as his second in command - a clearly and vastly inappropriate arangement in any organization. His son works in a security-adjacent IT role. Either of them should be welcome to stay on, if they can pass muster and scrutiny by new leadership, like anyone else. If not, they can be involved in this house-cleaning process as needed. At the least, they likely should be reassigned, and by no means should his wife be allowed to replace him in any capacity.

It costs money to host a site, and to truly gain traction in the community it would not hurt to invest in printed materials, yard signs, or other swag. We can do that, with a little help. Think of it like a tip jar. If you can't, no problem. If you can, thanks!

"Okay, so what can I do?"

You can share your story (or tip), and help us collect more information to share with GRPS in the quest to end the Larry Johnson Regime once and for all.

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Thank you.

Your support and willingness to share is critical in exposing what so many of us already know: it is time for GRPS to FIRE LARRY JOHNSON.


If you would also like to contribute to our operating costs or help us afford more assets (yard signs, anyone?), please visit our BuyMeACoffee.com page.

"Official" options

Don't just tell us.

Try the Ombudsperson:

Don't just tell us.

Those who are comfortable with attempting to use the official channels of GRPS should at least try, but we understand how useless those have been in the past. Perhaps flooding them with reports will help GRPS get serious.

Ethics Hotline:

Try the Ombudsperson:

Don't just tell us.

Provided for those who are "uncomfortable reporting to a supervisor or other administrator" (which is often the case in GRPS culture). You can reach the GRPS toll-free Ethics Hotline by calling 1-800-345-7377.

Try the Ombudsperson:

Try the Ombudsperson:

Try the Ombudsperson:

Call 616.819.3006 or email Ombuds@grps.org for "impartial, independent, informal, and confidential" assistance. (Note: Details left in email or voicemail may be subject to release through the Freedom of Information Act.)

This site is an independent effort of united parents and citizens and is not affiliated with any government, political, or charitable entity. All opinions and information expressed herein are solely held by contributors and not endorsed by their employers or any organizations with whom they are otherwise associated. Unless otherwise substantiated, all content is presented as credible but unproven accusation, opinion, political commentary, or observation based on public outcomes concerning a public official.

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