Ex-principal in Goons suit now an academic coach

May 4—The former principal at Riggs Elementary School who was caught up in the Gilbert Goons case is being reassigned to the district office.

Jamie Lander left Riggs soon after a $6 million legal complaint was filed against the district by a parent of one of the Goons' victims. That same parent, Richard Kuehner, also filed a separate lawsuit against the teens who attacked his son, and their parents. Lander and her stepson are named as defendants in that lawsuit.

"A primary goal of Chandler Unified School District is to provide a quality learning environment, free of distractions," CUSD said in a statement about the Lander situation. "The distractions at Riggs Elementary disrupted the learning environment and interfered with our priority to educate students.

"The district has reassigned Ms. Lander to the student services department, where the district needs extra support. Ms. Lander is highly qualified in the area of special education. This reassignment is not disciplinary in nature."

CUSD was advertising earlier this month on its jobs board for a new principal for Riggs. The district wrote in a Feb. 13 email that Pam Nephew is filling the role in the interim.

Lander was to start assisting with academic coaching last week, according to the district.

Police reports state that Lander's stepson played a role in the attack on Kuehner's son. He was interviewed by police multiple times, including in Lander's office at Riggs with his parents present.

Kuehner's son was attacked at the Gilbert In-N-Out restaurant on Aug. 18. The boy had transferred to Perry High School from Campo Verde because of bullying. However, he was almost immediately bullied at Perry.

There were two other incidents before the beating. One was a photo sent to him of a teen holding a gun, which he and his father perceived as a threat.

The second was when a group of teens arrived outside their home and did not leave until Gilbert police were called.

The Gilbert Goons are a group of mostly white, mostly affluent teen boys who have been accused of multiple attacks, some involving brass knuckles. They are suspects in the fatal attack last October on Chandler resident Preston Lord, 16, at a Halloween party in Queen Creek.

The name, Gilbert Goons, is one they gave themselves in a social media group chat, one of the members told police.

Lord, a Combs High School student, died two days after being beaten at a Halloween party last fall. Seven young men have been charged in his death. Lander's stepson is not one of them and told police he was not at that party.

Kuehner's son now lives overseas with his mother. Prosecutors have decided not to press charges in the attack on his son.

This is not the first time CUSD has reassigned an employee who was caught up in a scandal to the district office.

Ken James was principal at Hamilton High School during the football hazing scandal of 2017. He was censured by the Arizona State Board of Education in 2022 for not ensuring players were being monitored in the locker rooms where the assaults took place.

James is the district's executive director of junior high schools, alternative education and safety programs today.

Shawn Rustad was the athletic director at Hamilton during the scandal. He was also censured by the board at the same time as James for not ensuring players were being supervised in the locker rooms.

Rustad is CUSD's director of secondary athletics and auxiliary programs today.

In 2017, five freshman football players claimed they were sexually assaulted in the locker rooms as an initiation into the program. A father emailed the district and Chandler Police to start the investigation. District officials, who are mandatory reporters, claimed they did not know what was taking place.

Others who were censured by the board for that scandal, head coach Steve Belles and assistant coach Manny Palomarez, are no longer with the district.

The only person arrested during the scandal was a student, Nathaniel Thomas, who was charged as an adult. He pled guilty to aggravated assault and was given a sentence of six months of supervised probation.