Phylicia Rashad offered a 'sincere apology' to Howard students and parents after celebrating Bill Cosby's release from prison
Phylicia Rashad apologized to Howard University students after posting a tweet celebrating Bill Cosby's release from prison.
Rashad became the dean of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard in May.
The university condemned her tweet, saying the "personal positions of University leadership do not reflect Howard University's policies."
Phylicia Rashad on Friday apologized to Howard University students and parents for her celebratory tweet praising Bill Cosby's release from prison.
Her supportive post, which appears to have been deleted, said, "FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!"
The tweet immediately sparked backlash and Howard, the school where Rashad is employed, condemned her remarks on Wednesday.
"Survivors of sexual assault will always be our priority," a statement from Howard said, adding that Rashad's tweet "lacked sensitivity towards survivors of sexual assault."
"Personal positions of University leadership do not reflect Howard University's policies," the statement continued. "We will continue to advocate for survivors fully and support their right to be heard. Howard will stand with survivors and challenge systems that would deny them justice. We have full confidence that our faculty and school leadership will I've up to this sacred commitment."
Rashad in May became the dean of the university's Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts.
Rashad, who starred alongside Cosby in "The Cosby Show" as Clair Huxtable, immediately retracted her original tweet and publicly apologized on Twitter, saying she supports survivors of sexual assault.
On Friday, Rashad apologized again, this time to Howard students and parents, CBS News reported.
"I offer my most sincere apology," Rashad wrote in the letter, which multiple students told the outlet they received via email.
"My remarks were in no way directed towards survivors of sexual assault. I vehemently oppose sexual violence, find no excuse for such behavior, and I know that Howard University has a zero-tolerance policy toward interpersonal violence," Rashad reportedly added in her letter.
Cosby was released from prison on June 30 after a Pennsylvania court threw out his sexual assault conviction on a technicality. The court ruled that a previous district attorney in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, had made an agreement in 2005 to not prosecute Cosby based on testimony given in a civil case.
"In light of these circumstances, the subsequent decision by successor DAs to prosecute Cosby violated Cosby's due process rights," the judges said.
Cosby, 83, was serving a three- to 10-year sentence for aggravated indecent assault after a 2004 conviction in the 2004 sexual assault of Andrea Constand.
Insider's Taiyler Simone Mitchell and Azmi Haroun contributed to this report.
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