A Barry University student sued the school Monday because of the behavior of a former professor, who police said attempted to “photograph her genitals” in class and who was arrested for that incident last week.
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Glen-Peter Ahlers, a law professor at Barry University, was arrested in February on 50 counts of child pornography possession. During that investigation, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said it also found photos on Ahlers’ phone that looked to depict a female law student and were zoomed in on her groin.
On Wednesday, Ahlers was charged with felony video voyeurism in that incident, and the student, Kali McElroy who was photographed, filed a lawsuit against Ahlers and the university on Monday, according to Amir Hayavi, McElroy’s attorney.
McElroy is seeking $50,000 in damages for the emotional distress and humiliation caused by the incident, which her lawsuit says involved a recording device that tried capture images under her dress.
Ahlers took the photos of McElroy on the first day of the class of the spring 2026 semester, Hayavi said in a written statement. He was arrested on Feb 17 on the child pornography charges, and McElroy learned about the photos on March 3.
McElroy chose to make her name public because “she believes meaningful institutional change can only occur when misconduct is exposed and addressed,” Hayavi wrote. “Universities have a duty to protect the students who place their trust in them. When institutions fail to do so, they must be held accountable.”
The lawsuit also accuses Barry University of hiring Ahlers, despite a past arrest and conviction of voyeurism in 1988 for peeking through a female student’s bedroom window at the Wake Forest School of Law in North Carolina. A “reasonable” background check before hiring would have found this arrest, which shows a propensity for voyeuristic tendencies, the lawsuit says.
And it claims the university took too long to put Ahlers on leave after law enforcement searched his office and phone during its child porn investigation. Two weeks after that search, Ahlers taught a Feb. 17 class and then was arrested by the sheriff’s office later that day, the lawsuit says.
The sheriff’s office said Ahlers had hundreds, and possibly thousands, of pornographic photos and videos of children on his hard drive. The disturbing images involved infants, toddlers and school-age children naked and engaged in sex acts with adults, his arrest affidavit said. In some, the kids were bound and gagged while they were sexually abused.
The former professor has pleaded not guilty to those charges and faces an October trial.
Ahlers had been a professor at the private, Catholic university for almost 24 years, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was put on leave after his arrest and fired a few days later.
Ahlers has not entered a plea to the voyeurism charge as of Monday. He remains out on bond, which was set at $100,000 for the child pornography charge.
Barry officials and Ahlers’ attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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