Less than a week after Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial was declared a mistrial, the star’s publicist has announced that Cosby will spend time this summer talking to teens about sexual assault prevention, Us Weekly reports. Um, in what world is this okay?
Cosby’s publicist Andrew Wyatt appeared on the local talk show Good Day Alabama to discuss the possibility of Cosby returning to his regular work. “We’re now planning town halls and we’re going to be coming to [Birmingham] sometime in July…to talk to young people because this is bigger than Bill Cosby,” Wyatt said. “This issue can affect any young person, especially young athletes of today, and they need to know what they’re facing when they’re hanging out and partying, when they’re doing certain things that they shouldn’t be doing. And it also affects married men.”
Despite dozens of women claiming that Cosby drugged and assaulted them, the comedian is free on $1 million bail after the trial’s jury couldn’t determine whether or not he was guilty in harming the only woman whose case was addressed in trial. According to CNN, prosecutors will try to schedule another trial within 120 days.
Understandably so, the public hasn’t reacted to the news of Cosby’s speeches well, turning to Twitter to express their feelings.
Instead of teaching men to avoid the law we should teach men to respect women. This is a sick insult to his victims. https://t.co/ot9nYoMzhb
— Jen Siebel Newsom (@JenSiebelNewsom) June 22, 2017
I love how there’s a limit where if someone is famous enough they don’t have to get in trouble for stuff and Bill Cosby is right on the line
— Alex vs The World (@r3d_h3rring) June 23, 2017
Although Cosby’s team may be advertising his talks as educational, there’s no doubt that someone with his history talking to people about sexual assault is disturbing.