The Chandler Unified School District has reassigned Jamie Lander, a former principal who has been named in three civil legal filings related to the “Gilbert Goons,” to its special education department.
Lander, who was formerly the principal of Riggs Elementary School, had been on leave since at least February. On April 4, the district began searching for a new Riggs Elementary principal to replace her.
Lander has been reassigned to the district’s student services department, which oversees special education services, according to district spokesperson Stephanie Ingersoll.
The reassignment was not disciplinary in nature, Ingersoll said, but was prompted by the fact that the “distractions at Riggs Elementary disrupted the learning environment” and interfered with the district’s “priority to educate students.” The district’s student services department needs extra support, Ingersoll said, and Lander is “highly qualified in the area of special education.”
An investigation by The Arizona Republic published in December detailed a string of vicious assaults by the Gilbert Goons that had gone unchecked since at least 2022. The Republic also outlined the group’s potential ties to the fatal beating of 16-year-old Preston Lord at a Halloween party in Queen Creek.