Victorian students’ harrowing alleged sex assault ordeals detailed

Dozens of former students at some of the state’s top public and private schools have alleged harrowing sexual assault stories on a petition website.

Geelong Grammar School

Former students from 30 more private and state schools across Victoria have detailed harrowing examples of sexual assault and rape on a petition website.

They claim their schoolboy perpetrators came from some of the state’s leading private schools such as Melbourne Grammar, Ivanhoe Grammar, Geelong Grammar, Yarra Valley Grammar and Marcellin College. Young women from state campuses have added comments to the petition, bringing the Victorian total of schools involved to more than 80.

The anonymous, unverified comments were left by young women, and a few young men, on a petition started by Chantal Contos calling for sexual consent to be taught earlier and more comprehensively in schools.

Detailed accounts include stories of young women being raped in school hallways, trapped in bathroom stalls, asked to perform sexual acts for money and being taken advantage of by boys offering to drive them home.

The Marcellin College is named on the website

A student from Ivanhoe Grammar who finished in 2017 said she was raped and assaulted by an older student and “left bleeding, bruised and with no support”.

Again, boys’ schools have come under scrutiny, with a 2020 Marcellin College student writing that there was “an insane amount of young males who believe they’re entitled to other girls bodies”.

However, there are also many stories from co-ed schools detailing sexual harassment and abuse at the hands of their male classmates and boyfriends.

One female from Yarra Valley Grammar said it “was not unusual, just unfortunately how things were”.

A Geelong Grammar student from 2012 said boys considered girls “good to go” when they were too drunk to stand up.

A consistent theme is that girls either didn’t realise they had the right to object to sexual activity, or that they objected and weren’t listened to.

One male victim from Trinity Grammar around 2005 said he was just 12 and given alcohol and cannabis before two older girls performed oral sex on him in front of a crowd.

At Geelong High School one girl said she was in year nine when she passed out from drinking “but my class mate continued to have sex with me”.

Other state school victims came from Canterbury Girls’ Secondary College, Ballarat High and Upwey Secondary College.

Education Minister James Merlino said he has asked the department to meet with Ms Contos to look at ways consent education could be stronger in schools.

Rebecca Cody, principal of Geelong Grammar, said the safety and welfare of students was her school’s highest priority and counsellors were on hand to support anyone who came forward.

Marco Di Cesare, principal of Marcellin College, acknowledged the courageous voices of the women speaking out. “This is not a short term fix, it’s a conversation we need to keep having,” he said.

Originally published as Victorian students’ harrowing alleged sex assault ordeals detailed