MILWAUKEE — Students at Cristo Rey High School staged a walkout on Friday, expressing anger over the school's now-former chief of security.
Prosecutors say the former employee, Fernando Bustos, was caught recording videos inside the girls' locker room.
The 41-year-old was fired last month.
According to a criminal complaint, Bustos recorded hundreds of videos at the school from May 2024 through February 2025. As TMJ4 Lighthouse first reported Wednesday, Bustos was a Greenfield police officer before being hired at Cristo Rey. He resigned from Greenfield after an internal investigation found he stole evidence and lied about it.
Those actions landed Bustos on the Brady List and the state's Flagged Officer List—lists of law enforcement officers with serious integrity issues.
Rachel Tapech, a senior at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, showed TMJ4 videos of what she called an intense board meeting at her school.
"Seeing a lot of my classmates crying, I was like, 'This is really happening, this is happening at my school,'" Tapech said.
The meeting was held to address concerns following Bustos' firing.
"Why did you and your classmates feel the need to show up at the board meeting today?" TMJ4's Mariam Mackar asked.
Watch: Students stage walk-out after fired employee secretly filmed female students
"So the board would feel pressured to give us answers," Tapech replied.
"Do you think you got answers today?" Mackar asked.
"No, I don't."
Tapech said that was why she and dozens of her classmates decided to walk out of school Friday. The school then sent an email dismissing students early to "allow the community time to heal."
"The well-being of our students is our number one priority," the school's president, Andrew Stith, said. He told TMJ4 the school notified parents as soon as they were able.
According to the administrator, Bustos was fired on February 5 for unrelated performance issues. After his termination, administrators were collecting his school belongings on February 19 when they discovered a recording device with videos of female students.
Stith said law enforcement was immediately contacted and an investigation into Bustos began.
"With police activity taking place, we tried to find out as much information as we could," Stith told TMJ4.
Stith said standard background and reference checks were completed for Bustos, which raised no red flags.
The school is bringing in a third party to review its hiring procedures and said it will continue providing counselors to support students.
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