Female student publishes details of teenage sexual assault

Thursday, March 4th, 2021

More than 1000 graphic allegations of teenage sexual assault in Australian school communities have been published on a new website.

Thousands more detailed accounts will be added.

The stories appear as a growing movement to improve sex and consent education in Sydney private schools extending across Australia.

Former Kambala School student Chanel Contos launched an online petition calling for better consent education in Sydney private schools.

In the 10 days since the launch, Contos has received more than 4000 harrowing accounts from former and current students.

The stories now span private, Catholic and public schools from regional NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Perth.

“The point of this is to scale it, take it nationwide. I want this to continue to be at the forefront of everyone’s mind, the government’s mind, because we need educational reform and societal reform. Everyone needs to be conscious of their contribution to rape culture,” Contos said.

The hundreds of testimonies Contos originally shared via a confronting 70-page Google document will be migrated to the new site. Thousands more will be added in the coming weeks after they are screened for identifying details.

“I don’t want this to be about pointing fingers at individuals; I want this to be about the whole discourse and structural change that needs to happen,” Contos said.

The testimonies published so far have described in detail young women’s experiences of their male peers from school.

Accounts told of forcing girls to perform oral or anal sex, or raping them while they were asleep or unconscious.

Individuals are not named, but most women have chosen to identify themselves by their school or graduating year.

School principals have labelled the testimonies as heartbreaking, harrowing, and “disturbing, bleak but essential reading”.

Ms Contos’ website – which will be hosted under the domain name “teachusconsent.com” – will also allow people to submit their own stories.

Visitors can also sign the petition for better sex education and download templates for emailing their schools or MPs.

In the future, she plans to add educational resources for parents and students. Resources to assist victims of teenage sexual assault will also be included.