Amanda Simmons Quoted in ABC30 Coverage as Visalia Families Speak Out at Arraignment
Ambika Law represents families of nonverbal students with disabilities who allege that Visalia Unified School District failed to act on reports of physical abuse in a self-contained special education classroom at Highland Elementary School — and did not tell parents for more than a year. The families filed claims under the California Government Claims Act on April 30, 2026, and are represented by Ambika Law alongside co-counsel McNair Law Group and Leigh Anne Hodge.
Amanda Simmons was quoted in ABC30 Fresno’s arraignment coverage, reported by Kassandra Gutierrez. Reporting during the same window appeared in The Sun-Gazette, on KNN, on NBC Telemundo’s Fresno al Día, on CBS47 and KSEE24, and in syndication on Yahoo News.
Cases like this one rest on a straightforward principle: when a district learns that a child may have been harmed, the family has a right to know. Nonverbal students cannot report what happens to them. That makes a district’s duty to escalate, document, and notify parents not a procedural formality but the only real safeguard a child has.
Ambika Law represents students with disabilities and their families in institutional abuse, educational neglect, and special education matters throughout California.
SOURCE LINKS
• ABC30 Fresno — arraignment coverage (Kassandra Gutierrez), May 19, 2026 — [PASTE URL]
• The Sun-Gazette — “Families file suit against VUSD in Highland Elementary abuse case,” May 16, 2026 — https://thesungazette.com/article/news/2026/05/16/families-file-suit-against-vusd-in-highland-elementary-abuse-case/
