One student arrested after peaceful protest turns rowdy at West Bend East & West HS

The West Bend superintendent calls it a sad day for West Bend schools.

One student was arrested and she could face a disorderly conduct charge. Others could be cited for their involvement in a peaceful protest that turned rowdy Thursday morning.

West Bend East and West High School went into a soft lockdown after that protest got out of hand. Several students said there was a group trying to talk to school leadership about a new hall pass policy. It was part of a social media campaign against the new policy.

Students were voicing their opinion against this hall pass policy Thursday morning in a meeting called by administrators. They called the media in response to the Facebook group and social media campaign.  The policy requires students to wear a hall pass around their neck when they want to leave class. It's a lanyard with sign on it that's half the size of a piece of printer paper.

West Bend superintendent Ted Neitzke said that about 350 students came to the meeting. But a group of about 100-120 students started getting agitated and angry because the administrators wouldn't change the policy immediately.

\"They wanted us to use these passes,\" Junior Molly Fry said. \"[they said we] Couldn't go to the bathroom the first and last five minutes of class. Would get a ticket, a truancy ticket, if we got caught without them. People didn't like that.\"

West Bend Police Chief Ken Meuler says they've been interviewing the students involved.

\"There were 100 very disruptive students, we'll have to do more investigating,\" Meuler said. \"[Some were] tearing things off the walls, turned on some sinks in the bathroom and stuff like that.\"