Cosby urges young fathers to ‘claim their children’

BALTIMORE — Comedian Bill Cosby, making an all-day visit to Baltimore last week, took absentee fathers to task, urged elementary school students to study and suggested unusual methods to prevent teenage pregnancy.

“If you hear a female say, ‘I want to have something that loves me,’ stop her,” Cosby said during a visit to a West Baltimore elementary school. “Stop her quickly. Duct tape her to the closet. This is no time to fool around. You can’t dump this (baby) on your mother, you can’t dump this on your grandmother.”

Cosby was serious most of the time, however, including, at a panel at Heritage United Church of Christ, some harsh words for absentee fathers.

“This is a great evening because we’re calling on men to come claim their children,” Cosby said. “And that’s part of being a man. You cannot be a man at all if you haven’t claimed your child.

“Some of you have three, four, five of them. You have more children than you have jobs.”

The event was dubbed “Fatherhood Works” and conducted by Coppin State University, with Coppin President Stanley F. Battle acting as host for Cosby’s visit.

“I don’t know of any other celebrity that’s doing what he’s doing,” Battle said. “He’s reaching back to inspire.”

Cosby started the day at Rosemont Elementary. “Those of you that study, you can recruit,” he said. “If they can recruit people and get them not to study, you can recruit people to try and study.”

Cosby received standing ovations after his remarks in each assembly.

Donna Lowe-Tolson and her daughter followed Cosby from his second assembly at Robert W. Coleman to Westside Elementary to hear the session again. “He didn’t come in a three-piece suit flaunting his popularity. He just came as everyday people,” she said.

Information from The (Baltimore) Sun was used in this report.

(Associated Press)