Chanel Contos‘ lobby group, Teach Us Consent, has posted a series of infographics on Instagram analysing the sexual assault testimonies they received from current and former high school students involving private school boys.
“As the government debates consent education in the Public sector, we also demand commitment to drastic reform in the Independent school sector,” the caption of the Instagram post said.
“These numbers are from ~4100 analysed testimonies of 6500 on teachusconsent.com.”
The post claims that Teach Us Consent received dozens of stories involving male students at some of Sydney’s most prestigious private schools, including:
- Cranbrook (166)
- Scots College (151)
- Shore students (103)
- Knox Grammar students (90)
- Saint Ignatius’ College Review students (89)
“These numbers suggest an entrenched problem with the culture among these students. This culture is not exclusive to these schools, but Australia wide,” the post says.
“The numbers understate the problem as not all testimonies have been analysed, ad not all victims of sexual assault have submitted a testimony.
“These numbers prove we live in a rape culture.”
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Teach Us Consent called for the holistic consent education that has been the basis of Chanel Contos’ petition.
“The best way to create a long term, cultural shift in a community is through education.
“As the New South Wales government debates whether we need more holistic and earlier consent education, we also need the commitment of drastic reform to consent education from the Independent school sector.”
The Teach Us Consent Instagram also shared a series of sexual assault testimonies from current and former high school students on its Instagram story, which have since been deleted. However, they are all listed on the Teach Us Consent website. At the time of publication, there have been 6,536 testimonies submitted to the website, which are available to read publicly.
“A friend and I went out with two Scots boys. They seemed nice until the other boy wanted to separate me from my friend, walking off with her and then [raping] her,” a student from James Ruse Agricultural High School said of an experience in 2008.
“She ran back crying that we need to get away from them and I had a chain of bruises all over my neck from the boy I had met even though I had told him that he was hurting me.”
Another student, from Kambala Church of England Girls’ School , alleged they were raped by their boyfriend, who was a Cranbook student, when they were 14 years old.
“I was raped by my supposed boyfriend at 14. I was drunk and passed out and woke up to him raping me. He went to Cranbrook and was a year older than me. I immediately told him to stop and walked out of the room. He took my virginity through rape. Deep down I knew it was non consensual rape but I was 14 and was afraid of the reality of that situation.”
Another student alleged that their boyfriend, a Knox student, raped them in 2018:
“I clearly said I didn’t want to. this wasn’t his first time asking me this. I was over at his house and he asked me it again. However this time he started to guilt trip me saying if I really loved him I’d do this for him and that he couldn’t control how he felt cause it his feelings for me where just too strong. I was reading my book, sitting on his bed at the time and he came up and pushed me further onto his bed and then he forced me.”
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There are thousands more testimonies like these on teachusconsent.com, and not all of them are specific to female students, with many alleging sexual assault from staff members, against staff members, and sexual assault between male students.
“As a high school teacher I was raped,” another individual from All Hallow’s School alleged in a testimony about experience in 2009.
“I was told that being raped did not qualify having any sick days off work,” a teacher
NSW Parliament will debate if earlier and more holistic consent education should be added to the curriculum on Thursday, June 24. Chanel Contos, as part of the Teach Us Consent organisation, has called a rally on the same day, though the future of the protest is uncertain given COVID-19 restrictions.
PEDESTRIAN. TV has reached out to the schools involved for a comment.
Help is available. If you require immediate assistance, please call 000.
If you’d like to speak to someone about sexual violence, please call the 1800 Respect hotline on 1800 737 732 or chat online.
Under 25? You can reach Kids Helpline at 1800 55 1800 or chat online.
