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/
