SOUTH WALES, N.Y. (WKBW) — A former school administrator with the Gow School will spend more than two decades in prison after admitting he used a system of hidden cameras to exploit innocent children.
On Thursday, 52-year-old Matthew Fisher was sentenced to 26 years in prison for producing child porn while at the school. According to court documents, Fisher used a system of hidden cameras placed in clocks and wall plugs around his residence, which was on the first floor of the school's student dormitory. Cameras were also hidden in a school bathroom in the student dorm. Fisher admitted to secretly recording children for approximately five years.
According to his plea agreement, Fisher admitted to creating videos of four boys, ranging in age from 12 to 15, while they were engaged in sexually explicit conduct. A fifth, 16-year-old boy was secretly filmed while using the bathroom. Fisher was the school's associate director of enrollment and management until he was fired following his arrest in 2023.
A mother of one of his young victims released a statement, addressing the "devastating" impact Fisher's actions continue to have on her son.
"The bright, outgoing, confident child I once knew has retreated into himself. He spends most days alone in his bedroom, only emerging for food or the bathroom. He no longer socializes. He avoids his friends. He doesn’t want to leave the house, and he struggles with being around people at all. He cries every morning before school and begs me to homeschool him. Though he still performs well academically, the emotional toll is overwhelming.
Matthew Fisher’s actions were deliberate, calculated, and inexcusable. They robbed my son of his innocence, his sense of safety, and his trust in others. The effects are not temporary—they are ongoing, and they are deeply painful."
It was also discovered that Fisher possessed pictures and video of other child victims on numerous electronic devices. According to court documents, some of the files depicted children as young a six years old.
At the time of his guilty plea in March of 2025, the School released the following statement saying in part, "We are a different school today, a better one, and we commit daily to maintaining the safety and well-being of everyone involved with Gow.”
The Gow School is a college preparatory school for students with dyslexia and related language-based learning disabilities.
