More than 2000 girls, some as young as 13, have come forward with allegations against young men who attended all-boys schools, in a petition that’s calling for consent to be taught at a younger age. The petition was created by former Kambala School student Chanel Contos.
Initially, Contos asked her followers in an Instagram poll the following question: “If you live in Sydney: have you or has anyone close to you ever experienced sexual assault from someone who went to an all-boys school?”
In less than 24 hours, Contos received around 300 responses, with over 72% of individuals saying yes. This lead her to create a petition for consent to be included in sex education in earlier years.
“Kambala provided me with life-changing education on consent for the first time in year 10. However, it happened too late and came with the tough realisation that amongst my friends, almost half of us had already been raped or sexually assaulted by boys from neighbouring schools,” she wrote.
“As a collective, we call for sexual consent to be at the forefront of educational issues in your school, from a young age.”
The petition also allows individuals to anonymously share their accounts of alleged sexual assault and rape that they experienced throughout their days in high school. So far, there have been more than 2000 separate testimonies from girls across Sydney, leading the petition to be extended “beyond Australia”.
“We were sharing stories and basically realised we had unlimited rape stories to share from our friends from these different schools,” Contos told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“We talk about a guy who forced us to give them head like what we had for breakfast yesterday.”
With permission, Contos has shared some of the anonymous testimonies submitted to her, which detail alleged experiences of sexual assault and rape from boys who attended all-boys colleges.
“I woke up so drunk in his bed with him penetrating me at a party with another couple having sex in the same room,” one girl from St Catherine’s School in Waverley wrote about an experience in 2015.
“I ran home without my shorts. He returned them the next week.”
Another girl from Willoughby Girls High School alleged that in 2019, she was hospitalised due to repeated assault.
“He and I started hooking up, then he started taking things further and I begged him to stop but things escalated and he raped me. It then happened again later with another guy at the same party.
“The same thing happened again at a Halloween party and I blame myself for it every day. Unfortunately, it continued with this boy for three months until I was put into the hospital.”
If you would like to sign the petition, or submit an anonymous testimony, you can do so here.
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.
