Gow School, former administrator hit with $4.8 million Child Victims Act verdict

A confused and terrified teenage boy was molested in his dormitory room “at least 100 times” in the 1990s by a former administrator at the private Gow School, his attorneys said. Those incidents led to a jury verdict of almost $4.8 million this week in a Child Victims Act lawsuit in State Supreme Court.

The jury found Michael Holland, a former assistant headmaster and teacher at the school, 67% liable for the sexual attacks, and Gow School 33% liable, according to Brian Melber and Laurie Baker, attorneys for the victim. The verdict on Monday followed a two-week trial before State Supreme Court Judge Deborah A. Chimes.

The accusations against Holland were made by Tarek Adam, now 45, whose parents sent him from Winnipeg, Canada, to attend the prestigious school in the Town of Wales when he was 14 years old.

Night after night, Adam testified, Holland would come to his dormitory room, reach up to his upper bunk bed, and use his hands to molest him.

“Tarek testified for several hours. It was graphic and disturbing. It was brutally difficult and emotional for him,” Melber told The Buffalo News. “The jury certainly believed him.”

“Gow officials understand and accept Monday’s jury verdict in a Child Victims Act case involving a former student from the early 1990s, and offer our deepest sympathy for what Tarek Adam experienced,” John R. Munro, head of school, said in a statement sent to The Buffalo News on Thursday afternoon. “As the leaders of the school today, we must take responsibility for what happened, even if it was many years ago. Our priority then, as it is now, is to ensure the well-being and safety of all our students.”

The verdict is the latest challenge faced by the school. It came one day before federal prosecutors announced that former Gow administrator Matthew Fisher had been arrested on a charge of possessing child sexual abuse images.

Prosecutors said the images possessed by Fisher appear to include some taken by a covert camera in a bedroom believed to be on the Gow School campus, although Munro said no Gow students were in the images.

A judge Friday ordered Fisher to remain in custody as federal officials launched a public outreach effort to find anyone who may have been victimized by him.

“He’s been an administrator at the Gow School for five years, and information that has developed from this ongoing investigation has led us to believe that there may be victims that we don’t know about,” U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross said at a news conference. “And we want to make sure that all victims are heard and receive the services that they will need and deserve.”

To give information to the FBI, anyone affected by the case can call 833-609-1736 or 716-843-5797. Authorities also set up an email account: usanyw.gowvicasst@usdoj.gov.

“We’re concerned that victims in this case might not have had the opportunity to come forward or know that they should come forward for this,” FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Matthew Miraglia said of the outreach effort. “Obviously, someone that works at a school does get us a little bit more concerned. And it just has a possible broader pool of victims, so we felt this was the best way to get that out to make sure everyone knows.”

While Fisher’s case proceeds, the school continues to deal with the fallout of five Child Victims Act lawsuits. Holland was named as an abuser in one of the five.

At trial, Gow’s attorneys did not deny the improper actions taken by Holland, but took the position that school officials were not aware of the incidents at the time.

“We took the position that they certainly should have known of his conduct,” Melber said.

Gow is a private, co-ed college-prep school in South Wales that specializes in teaching students in grades six through 12 who have dyslexia and other language-based learning disabilities. About 90% of the school’s students live at the school, according to the school’s website.

Adam claimed in his lawsuit that Holland started touching him inappropriately in 1992 and 1993, when Adam was a 14-year-old freshman living in a dorm supervised by Holland. The touching escalated to criminal sexual abuse and assault, including sodomy, according to court papers.

Melber and Baker said their client filed the suit to expose what happened to him at the school and protect other children who had no way to fight back against adult sexual predators. The attorneys said school officials should have been aware of rumors that Holland had acted improperly with students.

In March 2020, the school released a report by attorney Julia Hilliker that detailed accusations against four faculty members and a nurse reported to have occurred more than 20 years ago. The report said accusations included “student bullying; inappropriate, but nonsexual, verbal exchanges with teachers; and inappropriate or forced sexual interactions.” Holland, who left Gow in the late 1990s, was one of the accused faculty members mentioned in the report.

According to Munro’s statement on Thursday, the 2020 report resulted in improvements in the school’s security procedures, and more stringent background checks for employees.

“That Mr. Adam suffered what he did at our school is something we work diligently every day to make sure is never repeated,” Munro said.

“The jury heard all of the evidence and found that the majority of liability was attributable to the former teacher responsible for the abuse. The jury got it right,” said Hugh M. Russ III, trial attorney for the school.

The News reported in 2020 that Holland got into trouble after he left Gow School and found work at another school in New England.

Holland was headmaster at Linden Hill School in Northfield, Mass. The Associated Press reported that state child welfare officials investigated Holland after he was accused of sexually assaulting a student on a school trip to New York City.

Holland denied the accusations and was suspended from his job, the AP reported.

Holland was not present for the recent trial in Buffalo, and Melber said Holland, to his knowledge, no longer lives in the United States.

News Staff Reporter Patrick Lakamp contributed to this article

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