Chanel Contos petition: Sydney school principal calls on parents to instil ‘self-respect’ in their daughters

An elite Sydney school principal has made a strange request to parents amid disturbing revelations from thousands of Aussie students.

As the education sector scrambles to address a widespread problem with rape culture among Australia’s teenagers, the principal of an independent all-girls school in Sydney has asked parents to talk to their daughters about “risk taking behaviours and self-respect”.

In an email to parents, seen by news.com.au, the Principal of Kincoppal Rose Bay, Maureen Ryan, said the thousands of accounts of sexual assault and rape uncovered by activist Chanel Contos over the past week were “heartbreaking”, and that the school would be reviewing its curriculum and pastoral programs.

However, she said some of the responsibility lies with parents.

“This requires parents continuing to work in partnership with us to support your daughters by having conversations regarding consent, the impact of alcohol, risk taking behaviours and self-respect,” she said.

The email was sent to parents last week.

Maureen Ryan called on parents to teach their daughters about self-respect.

“When we do this together at both home and school we have a far greater chance to be able to keep our young women safe.

“We also encourage you to discuss the issue at home so your daughters can share feelings, responses and ideas with you.”

In stark contrast to that message, the Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia’s Executive Officer Loren Bridge said the problem being exposed on such a massive scale in Australia right now is “not about girls”.

“It has taken the public telling of very graphic and distressing stories by former Sydney school students to expose the underbelly of disrespect, privilege and callousness displayed by young men towards young women,” she said.

“This problem is not about girls — how they behave, how much they drink or what they wear.

“This is a systemic centuries-old societal problem. It is fuelled by the over-sexualisation of women in the media and easy access to pornography that is increasingly aggressive towards women.

“It is behaviour that endorses male sexual entitlement, lack of accountability and a power imbalance — whether that is a young man taking advantage of a young woman at a party, or a work colleague or manager abusing their position of trust.”

Many of the victims who spoke out in the petition said they attended Kincoppal Rose Bay. Picture: John Appleyard

This all comes as some of Sydney’s top private schools met with activist Chanel Contos to talk about the crisis and hundreds more accounts of sexual assault and rape from right across the nation were uploaded on Ms Contos’ new website yesterday.

Nine of the schools that were repeatedly mentioned in the initial testimonies on Ms Contos’ petition to shake up sexual education met with the former Kamala student in a virtual meeting last night.

Roughly 70 accounts of sexual assault have so far been submitted by former students of each SCEGGS Darlinghurst and Kambala School, and about 60 have come from former students of both Ascham School and St Catherine’s School.

Many of those have implicated former students of Cranbrook School, The Scots College and Waverley College.

Heads from each of those schools spoke to Ms Contos on Tuesday night, along with the principals of Sydney Grammar School, Kincoppal-Rose Bay School and St Vincent’s College.

In a joint statement, the schools said they would to their our programs and share best practice with each other.

“We will find ways for our young men and women to spend more time together in school settings so they can get to know each other for the good young men and women they are,” they said.

“We will also meet frequently as a group to keep the issue front of mind. Our aim is to implement sustainable programs over the long term that will lead to a cultural shift.”

Ms Contos has now collected more than 4000 testimonies from students in South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland, the ACT and NSW.

As pressure for reform of the sector grows by the day, the boss of the NSW Police sex crimes squad will be brief hundreds of private schools across the state this week and the Australian Human Rights Commission has invited representatives from the independent, Catholic and public school sectors to discuss system-wide responses to the problem.

Meanwhile, the heads of hundreds of private schools across New South Wales will be briefed by the boss of the police sex crimes squad this week.

The new head of the state’s child abuse and sex crimes squad, Stacey Maloney, will be speaking with them to “discuss the issue of sexual violence” amid growing concerns following the release of the petition.

“This week myself and assistant commissioner Stuart Smith will meet with key figures from the sector around how we can work together to create an environment and culture where students can focus on education and empowerment safely without fear,” she said.

RELATED:Chilling story shows dark problem with porn

Former Kambala student Chanel Contos started an anonymous online petition to improve sex and consent education in schools across Australia. Picture: Supplied

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Political pressure is also growing, as Labor MP Rose Jackson told a budget estimates hearing yesterday that Ms Contos’ petition had been “flooded” with stories showing current measures were not up to scratch.

“Young people in this state are crying out for better and more adequately funded sexual consent education in our schools,” she said.

Ms Contos has also met with Liberal MP for Wentworth Dave Sharma – who has thrown his support behind the campaign.

“Chanel has courageously highlighted what is clearly a scourge of sexual assault amongst our school-aged youth,” Mr Sharma told news.com.au

“The outpouring of testimonies in response is frightening, and I think shows that this issue is much more serious, and much more under-reported, than we have realised.

“It’s clear that more resources and attention are needed to emphasise consent and respect as cornerstones of youth sex education, and I commend Chanel for highlighting these issues.

I’ll be doing all I can to support and lend weight to Chanel’s efforts.”

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Yesterday, Ms Contos launched her website along with hundreds more testimonies of sexual assault and rape from students and former students across Australia.

Ms Contos told news.com.au that thousands more will be uploaded soon.

“I’m really excited that this is reaching different states because once these stories start coming out in other parts of the country, I think we will see the same response we’ve seen in NSW,” she said.

News.com.au has contacted Kincoppal Rose Bay for further comment.

To sign the petition, visit Ms Contos’ new website

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Originally published as Chanel Contos petition: Sydney school principal calls on parents to instil ‘self-respect’ in their daughters