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Howard University attempted to distance itself from actress Phylicia Rashad’s tweet praising Bill Cosby’s release — saying her post “lacked sensitivity” toward sexual abuse survivors.
The private school in Washington, DC issued a statement Thursday in response to Rashad, its incoming College of Fine Arts dean.
“While Dean Rashad has acknowledged in her follow-up tweet that victims must be heard and believed, her initial tweet lacked sensitivity towards survivors of sexual assault,” Howard said.
“Personal positions of University leadership do not reflect Howard University’s policies. We will continue to advocate for survivors fully and support their right to be heard.”
Rashad — who played Cosby’s TV wife Clair Huxtable on the hit series “The Cosby Show” — raised eyebrows with her celebratory tweet Wednesday just after Cosby’s sex assault conviction was overturned by a Pennsylvania court.
“FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!” she tweeted with a photo of the 83-year-old disgraced comedian.
Fallout from the tweet was immediate, with many condemning Rashad’s stance and questioning her future position with the university.
In a later tweet, Rashad walked back on her comments, saying she “fully support[s] survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth.
“Personally I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing,” she tweeted.
Cosby, 83, was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison in 2018 for sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004 — a conviction that was overturned Wednesday by Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court over a decades-old immunity agreement.
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