Vile sex assault claims rock more elite private schools in Victoria and Queensland

Australia’s most expensive private school is one of several to be rocked by disturbing sex assault claims from students. WARNING: Distressing

WARNING: Distressing

Disturbing stories of sexual assault claims have been uncovered at private schools in Queensland and Victoria – including the school with the highest fees in Australia – as a damning list of testimonies from students across Australia continues to grow.

More than 3000 testimonies have now been collected from students and former students around Australia, by a viral petition which has uncovered a sick culture of normalised sexual assault on a horrific scale.

The movement was created by Chanel Contos, a former student at a prestigious Sydney girls school, after hearing countless stories of sexual assaults through her network of friends while she was growing up.

Many of the initial testimonies came from students and former students from Sydney’s elite school, but now it is uncovering allegations from much further afield.

ELITE BRISBANE SCHOOLS MENTIONED

Among them is a claim from a former Brisbane Girls Grammar School student who made disturbing allegations against a Brisbane Boys College student in relation to an incident when she was in Year 10.

She alleges she was invited by the student to a friend’s house one weekend, and when they were left alone in a bedroom the night took a sinister turn.

“There were around five of them at the house,” she said in the claim. “We all went into a bedroom and all at once they left the room, leaving the boy I liked and me in the room.

“Once the door was closed the boy got on top of me and started trying to penetrate me. I remember being so shocked I froze and couldn’t speak.

“I cried the entire time. After he was finished I noticed the bed sheets were covered in my blood.

A former Brisbane Girls Grammar School student recounted her horrific experience.

“He told me this was ‘normal’. For years I have had guilt over letting this happen and couldn’t understand why I couldn’t push him off or yell.

“I think I just wanted him to like me so much I was just so scared and simply didn’t know how to tell him no.

DISTURBING TESTIMONIES FROM VICTORIA

Meanwhile, two testimonies have come to light from former students at Victoria’s Geelong Grammar School – which has the highest student fees of any school in Australia.

A student at the school said that, in 2017, she went to a mate’s house at the beach for the night.

“I got black out drunk for the first time and woke up after a few hours with his fingers inside me,” she said in the claim. “Three years later I found out he had done it a few times to his ex-girlfriend.”

She said she was assaulted again in December last year when she was on her way home from a night out with a male friend.

Geelong Grammar School has the highest education fees in the nation.

“He offered to pay for the Uber and I didn’t want my mum to see me on drugs,” she said in the claim. “I was super f***ed up and he was sober.

“After 30 minutes of him getting on top of me, trying to have sex with me, molesting me and me pushing him off and trying to move away I was too tired to fight anymore and let it happen. A month ago I find out he’s raped and assaulted countless women.”

A separate testimony from a former student at the same school claims she was sexually assaulted by her boyfriend after she passed out on a bench outside a party in 2014.

‘EXTREMELY DISTRESSING’: SCHOOLS RESPOND

Ms Contos is collecting the testimonies alongside a petition calling for earlier education about consent in Australian schools.

News.com.au has contacted the schools mentioned in the testimonies to ask what is done to inform their students about consent.

Brisbane Girls Grammar School principal Jacinda Euler said the testimony uncovered from a former student was “extremely distressing”.

“Our students are taught what is and isn’t acceptable, what constitutes criminal behaviour, how to assert their rights and when to report,” she said.

“The accounts that have been published are extremely distressing and they graphically highlight the need for us all to do more. There must be a determination to ensure that the stories of these girls and young women bring about urgent collaborative change among parents, schools – including our own – and our broader society.”

The school said it teaches girls about healthy relationships, sexual boundaries and decision-making in pressured social situations from Year 7, and that the issue of consent is explicitly addressed from Year 10.

Brisbane Boys’ College headmaster Paul Brown told news.com.au the testimonies uncovered this week are “concerning” and that the college is open to discussion about providing better education around consent.

Brisbane Girls Grammar School principal Jacinda Euler said the testimony from a former student is ‘extremely distressing’.

“The College fully supports the reporting of any sexual assault allegation to the police. Every person has the right to live their life free from unwanted or forced sexual behaviour that occurs without their consent,” he said.

“The content of the petition is concerning and a stark reminder of society’s collective responsibility to educate young men and women on the topic of consent.

He said the college currently uses a whole-school “positive education approach” designed to develop and engage boys’ abilities to build and foster positive and respectful relationships. Boys engage in purposeful, age-appropriate pastoral and wellbeing programs and are taught about respecting women, the importance of consent, domestic violence, bystander culture, e-safety and digital citizenship, and decision-making among other topics,” he said.

“We welcome conversations across the education sector about how all schools can continue to enhance educational programs around the teaching of sexual consent to young men and women.”

Geelong Grammar School has not responded to news.com.au’s requests for comment.

HUNDREDS MORE TESTIMONIES COMING

Ms Contos told news.com.au that the hundreds of testimonies that have been posted online alongside her petition calling for earlier education about consent are just “scraping the surface” and that hundreds more will be revealed when her website launches.

She said they include allegations of sexual assaults from across Australia and even some from overseas.

Ms Contos – who is now living in London – told news.com.au that reading the hundreds of testimonies had taken a “heavy emotional toll” on her, but she wasn’t entirely shocked by what she uncovered.

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

“This is just scraping the surface, I know there’s more,” she said. “These experiences stay with us, it doesn’t go away and it’s not fair that it’s going to happen to thousands more girls.”

She said the aim of the petition was to push for better education around sex and consent in high schools across Australia.

“This isn’t just something that’s happening in Sydney private schools, it’s much bigger,” she said.

She said the school she attended, Kambala in Sydney’s Rose Bay, provided her 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 among my friends, almost half of us had already been raped or sexually assaulted by boys from neighbouring schools,” she said.

Ms Contos said she is in talks with MPs and has plans to launch a website very soon.

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