Dartmouth University’s Alumni Relations department has concluded that no student will be punished for the Black Lives Matter incident last year, where activists stormed a library on campus and hurled racial abuse at students.

In November it was reported that a 150-person strong group of BLM protesters stormed the campus study space, screaming racially motivated chants such as, “Fuck you, you filthy white fucks!”, “Fuck you and your comfort!”, and “Fuck you, you racist shits!” One girl was even reported to have been pinned by protesters against a wall, who allegedly shouted “filthy white bitch” in her face. Vice Provost for Student Affairs Ing-Lise Ameer defended the protesters’ actions shortly after, claiming that the violent demonstration “needed to be done.”

Despite the actions of Black Lives Matter demonstrators at Dartmouth University, who also destroyed a Blue Lives Matter police memorial at the school earlier this month, Alumni Relations Assistant Director Meg Ramsden released the following statement in response:

After concluding its investigation with respect to the complaints and studying what was seen in the video in Baker-Berry Library, it was determined there were no specific violations of the Standards of Conduct. In essence, no rules for which there are recorded and communicated sanctions were broken.

While nothing that occurred in the library was found to be in violation of the Standards of Conduct, the spirit of the recent Moving Dartmouth Forward Citizenship Pledge was clearly violated. The pledge, however, is aspirational not actionable. There are no defined sanctions in place if it is not upheld, and some alumni feel perhaps there should be. The code reflects a standard we hope all community members will strive to achieve in their interactions with one another. Students were counseled in serious conversations about judgment, the pledge of citizenship and behaviour appropriate within a civil community…

Despite the reluctance to sanction any of the protesters involved in the incident, Ramsden did reiterate that “abusive language aimed at any of our community members – by any group, at any time, in any place – is not acceptable” before pulling the “freedom of speech” card that is so rarely afforded to conservatives when they want something as simple as a speaker to attend their campus:

Freedom of speech is mission critical. In these cases when it is a struggle to find the balance between that freedom and respectful behavior, it’s imperative that the Dartmouth community affirms its core principles of respect for every member of the community and everyone’s right of freedom of expression, and then reflect on the mistakes made against the backdrop of a commitment to civil discourse. The standards of the First Amendment are what we used to guide this process.