Manjit Atwal

Introduction

Manjit Atwal is a former director of human resources at Fresno Unified School District in California, accused in a civil lawsuit of pressuring a subordinate employee into sex, supplementing his pay to keep the arrangement quiet, and retaliating with threats against his job and his family when he refused to continue. The suit was brought by Ja’Vance Coleman, a 42-year-old district employee and former Fresno State basketball player, and names both Atwal and the district as defendants. The allegations are entirely unadjudicated: no criminal charges have been reported, and the district has confirmed only that Atwal is no longer employed by Fresno Unified.

Background Information

Coleman was hired by the district in January 2023 as a noontime assistant at Columbia Elementary School and moved into Fresno Unified’s main human resources department that spring, putting him under Atwal’s supervision. His attorney describes her as the number two person in the department. Before joining the district, Coleman had been a prominent Central Valley athlete: he starred at Washington Union High School, played three seasons for the Fresno State Bulldogs from 2004 to 2007, earned All-WAC honors, and was once an NBA prospect. He is a single father of two, including a high-school-age son who plays point guard.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Unadjudicated civil allegations. Every specific claim below is drawn from a pending lawsuit, not from any finding by a court or agency. Atwal has not publicly responded to the allegations, and no criminal charges have been reported.

According to the complaint, Atwal propositioned Coleman for sexual favors within about a month of his transfer into the HR department. The suit alleges he had learned she had a “pattern of threatening the jobs or job-related benefits of black employees in exchange for sexual acts,” and that he feared immediate firing if he refused her. She is alleged to have become territorial — falsely accusing female co-workers of flirting with him and moving his desk to isolate him from other staff.

The arrangement is alleged to have shifted after other employees and administrators began suspecting harassment: the district transferred Coleman to Tatarian Elementary School as a campus safety assistant, cutting his pay from $35 an hour to $25. The suit alleges Atwal then secretly made up the difference herself with off-the-books cash and purchases on her personal Target credit card, “so that her husband would not notice.” When an internal investigation into the hostile work environment began, the complaint alleges, she offered Coleman $300 to lie to investigators and deny that any sexual relationship or harassment had occurred.

Coleman says he began refusing Atwal’s advances near the end of 2025, and the suit alleges that is when she retaliated. According to court papers she showed up at the house owned by Coleman’s mother, repeatedly drove past his home, and threatened his family: district-employed relatives would lose their jobs, and his son would be blocked from graduating or attending college. She is also alleged to have accused him of stealing her jewelry and to have sent him a news article about the lynching of a Black man at Fresno’s Woodward Park, which Coleman says he interpreted as a threat against his safety. The complaint further asserts that top Fresno Unified executives knew of Atwal’s conduct and failed to act, and instead punished Coleman.

Public Reaction and Consequences

After the suit was filed, former district employees began describing Atwal’s workplace behavior publicly. Carla Sewell, a former FUSD office assistant, said in a social media statement that Atwal had “been like this for years,” recalling being screamed at to the point she was asked to leave the room, and argued that “toxic management and higher-ups who create unhealthy work environments should not be allowed to continue without consequences.” Coleman’s attorney, Sagaser, told GV Wire that “a supervisor who pays another employee for sexual favors and threatens that employee’s life, family, and career when the employee refuses his supervisor’s advances should be terminated immediately — that supervisor should not be placed on extended leave and ultimately afforded the opportunity to resign,” and called on the school board to examine how the matter was handled. GV Wire reported that attempts to reach Atwal were unsuccessful.

Current Status

The 24-page complaint, filed October 2, 2026 in Fresno County Superior Court, brings nine causes of action against Atwal and the district and has been assigned to Judge Jonathan M. Skiles, Department 503. Coleman is seeking financial damages for lost wages and emotional distress and has demanded a jury trial. According to the complaint, the district placed Atwal on paid administrative leave early in the 2025-26 school year, kept her on it for nearly the entire year, and then told her to resign or be fired; she resigned in March 2026. A district spokesperson declined to discuss pending litigation or personnel matters but confirmed that “Ms. Atwal is no longer employed by the district.” No criminal charges have been reported in the matter.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Atwal’s district career ended with a resignation she was told to tender under threat of termination, according to the complaint, and the filed allegations now form the public record attached to her name. For Coleman, the suit describes a demotion and a ten-dollar-an-hour pay cut he says left him accepting money he did not want as the only way to supplement his wages, alongside years of what he describes as threats to his employment, his family and his son’s education. His attorney notes the case is one of several his firm has pending against Fresno Unified, and argues the board should investigate the district’s handling of the whole sequence.

Sources

• “Married Fresno Unified HR boss accused of coercing ex-college basketball star into sex, threatening his family: suit, NY Post” source
• “Fresno Unified sued over sexual harassment, retaliation allegations, FOX26/KMPH” source
• “Former Fresno Unified HR director alleged to pay subordinate for sex, KSEE/KGPE via YourCentralValley” source
• “Lawsuit Alleges Fresno Unified HR Director Allowed to Resign After Paying for Sex With Subordinate, GV Wire” source