#Boston’s Berklee College apologizes for letting cops use bathrooms amid protests

Berklee Performance Center at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Boston Globe via Getty Images

The president of Boston’s Berklee College of Music has apologized to students for allowing cops to use campus bathrooms during recent protests of police discrimination and brutality.

“We have heard from many of you personally and across social channels of your hurt and anger that this access was permitted,” wrote Roger Brown in a joint Facebook statement with other school leaders regarding the May 31 protest, according to The Boston Globe.

“Allowing police officers into the space was in no way meant to undermine Berklee’s support for Black Lives Matter.”

During the protest demanding justice for George Floyd — a black man who died on May 25 after a white Minneapolis cop knelt on his neck — officers staged near the college were allowed to use the facilities in the Berklee Performance Center in what the statement said “was not a formal decision by the institution, but an informal one, made on the spot.”

Enough students were evidently P.O.’d by the move — particularly because the building is off-limits to them amid the coronavirus pandemic — that the school chose to clarify that the campus was not used as a staging ground for the officers, and issue the apology.

“We understand that many members of our community feel betrayed,” continued the statement, posted Tuesday. “We are deeply sorry for the impact this had on our community and for perpetuating feelings of oppression, silencing, and marginalization.

“Let us assure you, this should not have happened, and going forward, it will not happen again.”

Under student pressure to ban cops from school grounds altogether, New York’s Brooklyn College in 2017 started directing officers trying to answer nature’s call to a run-down bathroom on the edge of campus.