White Oaks Elementary School’s principal and assistant principal have both been permanently removed from their posts after a special education teacher was charged in June with multiple assaults of students.
In a message sent to the school’s staff and families on Oct. 30, Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid confirmed that principal Ryan Richardson and assistant principal Dana Chen won’t return after they were put on administrative leave this summer during a police investigation into the assaults.
“Both of their circumstances remain active personnel matters. As such, there is no further information that I will be sharing about this aspect of the situation,” Reid wrote in the letter, which was obtained by FFXnow via a Freedom of Information Act request.
Richardson’s position is currently being filled on an interim basis by Justine Klena, who has over 30 years of experience at FCPS and was once named Principal of the Year when she led Herndon Middle School. She has agreed to stay at White Oaks for the remainder of the 2024-2025 school year, according to Reid.
The assistant principal role has been taken over by Kathy Quigley, a former principal at Franklin Sherman Elementary School. She replaced interim assistant principal Scott Bergquist, who transferred to Robinson Secondary School after asking “to return to his preferred middle and high school leadership role.”
“Ms Quigley has 32 years of education experience — 13 as an elementary principal,” Reid said. “You are most assuredly in good hands with these two experienced leaders.”
The leadership shakeup at the Burke school (6130 Shiplett Blvd) came in the aftermath of Elizabeth Yoshimi Nagagata’s arrest on June 24. The preschool special education teacher allegedly assaulted three students on different occasions between September 2023 and April 2024.
Nagagata came under investigation after Fairfax County Child Protective Services (CPS) got a referral on April 12 for a teacher who was reportedly seen assaulting a student, according to the Fairfax County Police Department.
She faces seven charges of simple assault. The incidents all involved 4-year-olds and allegedly included shoving, pulling a chair out from under a student, stomping on a child’s arm and picking up a student and dropping them, the Washington Post reported, citing court documents.
Nagagata is scheduled to face trial in January, according to the Post.
The police investigation also led to a criminal charge of failure to report against Chen, who allegedly received reports of a teacher assaulting multiple students but didn’t share them as required with CPS or the FCPD.
The FCPD announced the charge against Chen on Oct. 31. She was released from custody after being served a summons.
Though he was removed as principal at White Oaks, Richardson won’t face any criminal charges — a determination made by the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney, Reid said in her letter.
The investigation didn’t produce enough evidence to bring charges against any other individuals, a spokesperson for the CA’s office told FFXnow. She clarified that the failure to report charge against Chen “is a civil matter.
“Our office is not involved in these cases,” the spokesperson said.
FCPS will launch a search for a new, permanent principal for White Oaks in the spring, Reid said.
“For now, we are focused on continuity and the well-being of students, staff and families,” she wrote to families and staff.
White Oaks, which has about 707 students in preschool through sixth grade, has also been rocked by “several” recent racist, homophobic and antisemitic incidents between students, according to an Oct. 31 newsletter sent to the school community.
Per the newsletter, school administrators have notified the community of an instance of one student directing a racial slur at another student during recess, the use of homophobic language and racial slurs in the cafeteria, and sixth graders using antisemitic “actions and words” in classrooms and at recess.
The incidents all occurred during the first quarter of the school year, according to FCPS. Administrators said in the newsletter that they violated policies in the school system’s Student Rights and Responsibilities handbook and its “goals to have a safe and inclusive school for all.”
White Oaks said its equity team had developed a plan for addressing the incidents that included diversity and acceptance lessons in classrooms, assemblies focused on “cultivating a more welcoming environment” for fourth, fifth and sixth graders, and contacting the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) about bringing its No Place for Hate program to the school.
The ADL is one of the most prominent Jewish civil rights groups in the U.S., but it recently drew criticism, including from a former leader, for not more strongly condemning presidential candidate Donald Trump’s recent campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, which some compared to a Nazi rally held there in 1939.
The organization has also focused on lobbying to redefine antisemitism to include criticism of Israel’s government.
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