An online petition detailing thousands of graphic incidents of sexual assault and rape against highschool students has ballooned, with at least 20 Victorian private and public schools now mentioned.
The petition launched a fortnight ago by former Sydney school girl Chanel Contos is gaining momentum, with schools and state governments now being forced to address the distressing accounts of assault.
By Wednesday night, Ms Contos’ website ‘teachusconsent’ had amassed more than 2900 anonymised testimonies by former and current high school students – overwhelmingly girls and women – across the country.
Chanel ContosCredit:Liliana Zaharia
In the first week of its existence the website and petition, which calls for mandatory consent education to be taught at a younger age, focused on stories of sexual assault and rape against students from private schools in Sydney. But now the harrowing accounts, which are untested, have named public schools in metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria.
Among the testimonies are from students from Our Lady of Mercy College in Heidelberg, Geelong Grammar, Princes Hill Secondary College, Yarra Valley Grammar, Geelong High School, Emmanuel College in Point Cook, Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College in Geelong, Monbulk College, Oxley College, Cathedral College in Wangaratta, St Columba’s College in Essendon, Upwey High School, St Leonard’s College in Melbourne, Canterbury Girls Secondary College, Mentone Girls Secondary College, Eltham College, Chaffey Secondary College in Mildura and Strathmore Secondary College.
Some of the testimonies allege the perpetrators were students of Brighton Secondary College and Melbourne Grammar School.
The website is signed by thousands of former students who graduated years ago but are pushing for future students to receive comprehensive sex education that directly addresses consent at a younger age.
“The worst part is, I think I have been raped. Several times. But until I educated myself (in my late 20’s) about consent, I never knew,” one anonymous testimony from a Monbulk College 2012 alumni.
