Lawsuit Accuses Principal Shawn Rumble and Assistant Principal Mandy Hardin of Ignoring Sinaloa Middle School Sexual Assault Complaints
A lawsuit filed in Ventura County Superior Court alleges that a Simi Valley middle school student was repeatedly groped at her desk while school leaders looked the other way. Now the case is putting Sinaloa Middle School administrators and the district under renewed scrutiny.
FEATUREDSIMI VALLEY NEWS
Editor’s note: This story does not identify the student because she is a minor and an alleged victim of sexual assault.
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — All last fall, the parents of a Sinaloa Middle School student watched their daughter unravel. She came home with bald patches on her scalp, complained of headaches, and ducked down in the back seat so no one would see her as they drove past the campus.
‘Something Was Wrong’ at Sinaloa
In early October 2025, the parents report that their daughter finally told them why. According to a civil complaint filed last week in Ventura County Superior Court, the girl disclosed that for weeks she had been sexually assaulted, beaten, and harassed in her own classroom by a boy seated at the same table.
The complaint alleges that the assaults included repeated genital groping beneath the student’s clothing — at least 10 times — at her assigned seat during the school day. It further alleges that her parents reported the abuse to the school’s principal, its assistant principal, and the Simi Valley Police Department, and that the school failed to act.
The 16-page lawsuit, filed June 5, names as defendants the Simi Valley Unified School District, Assistant Superintendent Sean Goldman, Sinaloa Middle School Principal Shawn Rumble, and Assistant Principal Mandy Hardin.
A District Already Under Scrutiny
The case is the latest in a string of lawsuits and criminal cases accusing the approximately 15,000-student district of mishandling — and at times concealing — allegations of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse of children on its campuses.
In recent months, those matters have extended from Santa Susana Elementary School to Simi Valley High School to a reported $6.8 million settlement involving special-needs students at Garden Grove Elementary.
In 2019, as the district denied claims of a cover-up in the Garden Grove matter, district spokesperson Jake Finch said, “The safety of our children means more than anything else,” and “Our kids have to be safe.” Finch also said the Student Support Services Department, “under the leadership of Sean Goldman, assistant superintendent, took immediate action and investigated the situation,” and that neither the district’s inquiry nor a police investigation “provided evidence to substantiate the concerns raised.”
However, a series of lawsuits has since been filed against Simi Valley Unified, some of them specifically naming Assistant Superintendent Sean Goldman as a defendant, alleging negligence by Assistant Superintendent Jerry Block, and accusing other senior Simi Valley Unified administrators of misconduct. Taken together, those cases have led parents and critics to question whether Finch’s assurances accurately reflect the events or whether she has been shaping the district’s response on behalf of Superintendent Hani Youssef.
What the Complaint Alleges
The student was a middle schooler at Sinaloa in the fall of 2025 when, the complaint asserts, a male classmate began what her lawyers describe as a sustained campaign of sexual assault, physical violence, and sex-based harassment. The filing alleges that the abuse was fueled by sexual jealousy.
“The classmate was admittedly jealous of a relationship [she] had with another male classmate,” the complaint states. “The perpetrator of the sexual, physical assaults and sex-based harassment against [her] appeared to have been motivated by the jealousy that the classmate had about [her] relationship with the other male classmate.”
A ‘War Zone’ School Day
At the center of the lawsuit are repeated allegations of genital groping that, according to the complaint, occurred at the student’s assigned seat.
“The perpetrator groped [her] vaginally, below her undergarments at least ten (10) times while repeatedly physically assaulting [her] multiple times,” the complaint states. “The perpetrator repeatedly pulled [her] hair and did so with such force that she had bald patches on her head.”
Elsewhere, the complaint broadens the allegations, describing groping both over and under the student’s clothing. “Essentially, the school day became a war zone for [her],” it states.
In plain terms, the lawsuit alleges that the student was terrorized by her classmate and repeatedly sexually assaulted — groped on her genitals beneath her clothing at least 10 times — in a classroom, at her assigned seat, by the boy sitting next to her. The complaint further alleges that school staff were present in the building.
The complaint does not allege that staff directly witnessed each assault as it occurred. It does contend that once the abuse was reported, school officials failed to investigate it, failed to stop it, and failed to protect the student from further harm.
Parents Report, School Allegedly Does Not Act
The student’s parents report that they first realized something was wrong in August 2025, when they noticed clumps of hair missing from their daughter’s head. On Sept. 9, 2025, the school nurse called her father to report that she had a severe headache. A pediatrician later concluded that the hair loss was stress-induced and that the child was pulling her own hair out.
The complaint states that she began ducking down in the back seat so she would not be seen as her parents drove past the school. In early October, she finally told her mother what she maintains had been happening.
“Parents emailed Defendant Shawn Rumble, Principal of Sinaloa Middle School, to report the assaults,” the complaint states. “Parents also telephoned Assistant Principal Ms. Mandy Hardin to report the assaults. They also reported the assaults to the Simi Valley Police Department.”
The complaint further alleges that the student herself walked into the school office to report what was happening. What followed, according to the filing, was nothing.
“The staff and administration of Sinaloa Middle School failed to initiate an investigation of the assaults and harassment reported by [the student] and her Parents,” the complaint asserts. “With no investigation conducted at all, the staff and administration of Sinaloa Middle School also failed to remedy the assaults and harassment perpetrated against [her].”
A Title IX Inquiry That ‘Went Nowhere’
The family contends that a Title IX investigator hired by the district attended a single meeting and then disappeared without issuing a Statement of Decision. The family eventually pulled their daughter out of Sinaloa and transferred her to Hillside Middle School to keep her safe.
The complaint, prepared by Andrea M. Tytell, Ellie J. Navarro, and Corinne L. Christensen of the Law Offices of Andrea M. Tytell in Redondo Beach, characterizes the classmate as a sexual predator and alleges that the three named administrators abdicated a non-delegable duty.
“Defendants had an affirmative duty to protect [her] from fellow classmates who are sexual predators,” it states. “In failing to do so, Defendants breached multiple statutory duties they owed to [her].”
A formal government tort claim was served on the district on Jan. 6, 2026. According to the complaint, the district never responded, never rejected the claim, and never issued a right-to-sue letter, prompting the lawsuit.
The Police, and What the District Did Not Say
A central allegation in the case is that Simi Valley Unified employees — who are mandated reporters of child abuse under California law — failed to alert police themselves and, the plaintiffs contend, actively concealed the assaults from law enforcement.
“Defendants breached their mandatory statutory duties to [the student] by concealing, or failing to tell, Plaintiff’s Parents and law enforcement about the ongoing physical assaults and sexual harassment and assaults committed by a classmate against Plaintiff in the classroom,” the complaint states.
The filing grounds that allegation in the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act and California Penal Code § 11166, which require school personnel to report known or suspected child abuse to a child protective agency, including any police or sheriff’s department under California law.
“By failing to report the continuing harassment and abuse,” the complaint argues, “Defendants created the risk and danger contemplated by the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, and as a result, unreasonably and wrongfully exposed Plaintiff and other minors to sexual harassment and abuse. … Had Defendants adequately reported the abuse and harassment of Plaintiff and other minors as required by California Penal Code § 11166, further harm to Plaintiff and other minors would have been avoided.”
That allegation conflicts with the school’s own published policies. Sinaloa Middle School’s 2025-26 Comprehensive School Safety Plan states: “Sinaloa Middle School reports all crime to the Simi Valley Police Department and utilizes School Resource Officers during on-campus incidents.” The plan also instructs district employees to report suspected child abuse either to Ventura County Child Protective Services or directly to the Simi Valley Police Department.
Whether that written policy was followed in the student’s case is now squarely at issue in the litigation. The complaint asks a Ventura County jury to decide whether the three named administrators honored the district’s published commitment to involve the Simi Valley Police Department or, as the plaintiffs contend, kept the police in the dark. At the same time, a child was being groped at her desk.
The complaint does not state what, if any, results came from the investigation, whether law enforcement received the family’s October 2025 report, or whether any criminal investigation is pending. Because the alleged perpetrator is a minor, any juvenile case file would not be publicly available.
According to the complaint, the student has been transferred out of Sinaloa Middle School and is receiving medical care for stress-related symptoms, including continuing hair loss documented in her medical records since September 2025. Her parents are asking a Ventura County jury to hold the district and its three named administrators personally accountable.
A Broader Question About Who Is in Charge
For families watching these cases unfold, the question is no longer whether one teacher, one coach, or one campus failed, but whether the district’s leadership structure itself is functioning. False accusations do occur, and any single complaint can turn on facts that are still in dispute.
But in a district as small as Simi Valley Unified, the concentration of recent lawsuits and criminal cases — including filings that name Assistant Superintendent Sean Goldman as a defendant, allege negligence by Assistant Superintendent Jerry Block, and place other senior administrators at the center of disputed decisions — has led some families and critics to argue that these cases can no longer be dismissed as isolated incidents.
Under Youssef’s tenure, those allegations have spanned special-education classrooms, general-education campuses, and extracurricular programs, even as the district continues to face claims that it failed to investigate, failed to report, and failed to protect children. Read together, those cases raise a concern among parents and critics that the way Simi Valley Unified is being supervised from the top, including the conduct of Youssef’s closest lieutenants, has allowed preventable harm to reach students.
Shawn Rumble Mandy Hardin Sean Goldman
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