Viral petition by Chanel Contos: 4,000+ people come forward with allegations of sexual assault

Viral petition by Chanel Contos: 4,000+ people come forward with allegations of sexual assault

*Content warning: This story may contain graphic descriptions and strong language, which could be confronting and disturbing.

Greek Australian Chanel Contos, creator of the petition to have consent and rape culture integrated into sexual education much earlier in the curriculum, has launched a website.

Her movement is growing massively by the day.

There are more than 21,804 signatories. And 4,000+ of sexual assault horror stories.

On the website www.teachusconsent.com, you can sign the petition for sexual education to be taught in schools from a young age, email your old school/ your MP or submit a personal testimony of assault.

“1500 is the amount of testimonies that have been reviewed,” she posted on her Instagram.

Many of the testimonies express the deep shame and trauma the young women have carried with them for a significant period of time before they dared to tell anyone.

Contos’ mission is to overhaul sexual education in schools across the entirety of Australia, and is asking that the curriculum include a varying range of topics such as sexual coercion, victim-blaming, toxic masculinity, slut-shaming, rape culture, female pleasure and queer sex.

All testimonies and signatories will be presented to MPs across the country to advocate for greater sex ed at an earlier age across Australia.

If you would like to sign the petition, or submit an anonymous testimony, you can do so here.

Where to find support if you have been impacted by rape, sexual assault or domestic violence:

Australia:

National Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence Counselling Service 24-hour helpline 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732

Lifeline (24 hour crisis line): 131 114

Beyond Blue: 1300 224 636

International:

Chanel Contos to publish thousands more teenage sexual assault stories on new website

*WARNING: This story contains references to sexual assault.

More stories of sexual assault in school communities were published by Greek Australian, Chanel Contos, on Monday night as part of a growing movement to improve sex and consent education in Australian schools.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Contos has received more than 4,000 graphic allegations of sexual assault since she launched an online petition calling for earlier sexual consent education across Australia.

READ MORE: Chanel Contos behind petition calling for earlier sexual consent education in Sydney schools.

Her new website has already published over 1000 of these anonymised student stories, while hundreds of other testimonies which Contos originally shared via a confronting 70-page Google document will also be migrated to the new site.

Chanel’s new website.

Thousands more testimonies will be added in the coming weeks after they are screened for identifying details, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

“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 told the Australian media outlet.

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

Greek Australian, Chanel Contos.

Dozens of private schools in both Sydney and Melbourne have now vowed to take stronger action on consent education in response to these claims, with many school principals labelling the testimonies “disturbing, bleak but essential reading.”

Contos said she wanted to retain the sobering effect of that Google document on her website.

“The point of it is to have the dramatic endless scroll, the thousands of testimonies and the thousands of signatures. It is so prevalent in our lives – I want everyone to be shocked, and stunned,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Going forward, Contos’ website (teachusconsent.com) allows people to submit their own stories, sign the petition for better sex education and download templates for emailing their schools or MPs. She also plans to add educational resources for parents and students, as well as resources for victims of sexual assault.

This website comes as both school circles and Parliament House have been reckoning with sexual assault claims over the past month. Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has been urged to sideline a federal cabinet minister accused of raping a 16-year-old girl in 1988 as authorities investigate, while former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins has taken her formal complaint over an alleged rape to the police.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald.

Rape culture in Australian schools: New Chanel Contos website exposes hundreds of new testimonies

WARNING: Distressing

Thousands of students from across every part of Australia have spoken out about a chilling culture of normalised rape and sexual assault in our schools – as horrified parents begin pulling their children out and pressure grows for systemic change.

Since being overwhelmed by the response to her petition – calling for earlier and more holistic sexual education lessons – Sydneysider Chanel Contos has received more than 4000 testimonies from students in South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland, the ACT and NSW.

Overnight, she launched a website where the disturbing accounts are beginning to be made public for the first time.

There are already more than 1500 testimonies on the website – and many of them bear eerie similarities to the vile stories that emerged from Sydney schools shortly after the petition first went live.

In many of the freshly-uploaded accounts, students say they were raped while unconscious at parties or woke up to being touched by someone inappropriately.

MELBOURNE SCHOOLS MENTIONED

Many of the new testimonies come from Melbourne schools, where students say there is a similar culture to the chauvinistic club-like mentality reported in some Sydney all-boys schools in the initial testimonies.

One former student at Carey Grammar School said she was 16 and at a party when she smoked her first joint and passed out on a bed.

“I thought I’d be safe as the host went to my school,” she said, recounting the incident in 2012. “Instead he came in and got into bed with me.”

She said the boy then started digitally penetrating her, and wouldn’t stop even though she repeatedly asked him to.

She said a friend of the boy entered the room and “joined in” – before spreading rumours around the school about the victim’s body.

RELATED: Dark secret at some of Sydney’s most elite schools

RELATED:Single-sex vs co-ed: Theory behind worrying sexual assault trend

“When I told my ex boyfriend a few years later he told me I asked for it and shouldn’t have laid down,” she said. “There’s so much wrong to this story.”

In another testimony, a former Firbank Grammar School student said she and her mates were invited to a “massive party of about 500 people” when she was in year 9.

“It was one of my first experiences drinking a lot and I was vomiting at the back of the party and going in and out of consciousness,” she said. “I don’t remember anything but the next day I found an Instagram picture of me passed out next to my vomit with a guy I don’t know with his hands up my dress.”

She said the St Kevin’s College student’s friends took pictures and posted them online.

“I reported the photo every day for a long time before it was removed and it still terrifies me that lots of people I don’t know have that photo,” she said. “I also don’t know what else was done to me that night because I don’t remember.”

‘RAPE CULTURE’ BEING EXPOSED

The disturbing accounts are just some of hundreds that have been uploaded overnight, and 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.

“The more people that come forward, the more it will help the cause and it will expose the rape culture in our society.”

RELATED:Chilling story shows dark problem with porn

RELATED:Vile sex assault claims rock elite schools in Victoria and Queensland

Private Sydney schools in particular were mentioned time and time again in the initial testimonies, and Ms Contos said she was already seeing positive signs that schools and MPs in the city were taking the petition seriously.

She is meeting with several headmasters in the schools mentioned tomorrow as well as Liberal MP for Wentworth Dave Sharma – who has thrown his support behind the campaign.

“As the response to this petition makes clear, we’ve all got to do better in educating our children, at home and in our schools,” Mr Sharma said.

PARENTS PULL STUDENTS OUT OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS

As the pressure grows for systemic change, it’s clear some parents aren’t willing to wait.

Some of those who sent their boys to Sydney private schools mentioned in the petition have spoken out, and some have reportedly sent their children to other schools.

One father of a year 9 student at Kings School in Parramatta told the Sun-Herald elite schools cultivated a culture of entitlement and privilege, which he said leads to a lack of “sensitivity” towards others.

“They teach these kids they’re the best, they’re the chosen ones, they’re going to run Australia, they’re going to conquer the world,” he said.

The parent said he chose the private school for his son to give him a better chance, but worried he and his wife would struggle to teach the child to be empathetic towards others.

News.com.au has contacted the school for comment.

MELBOURNE SCHOOLS RESPOND

Meanwhile, Melbourne schools mentioned in the new testimonies have expressed their concern.

The body representing some of Melbourne’s most prestigious Catholic schools – including St Kevin’s College, Parade College, St Mary’s College, St Joseph’s College and St Bernard’s College – said the petition had pushed them to take action and signalled they would work with parents to address the issue.

“The powerful testimonies provided by the many young women in the online petition are disturbing and are an indictment on societal decency,” said Edmund Rice Education Australia executive director Dr Craig Wattam.

“All of us – schools, families, and the broader community – must carefully consider and revisit issues pertaining to sex education.

“More specifically, sexual consent education is required for both young men and women and we need to be providing this education in early adolescence.”

News.com.au has also reached out to Carey Grammar School for comment.

To sign the petition, visit Ms Contos’ new website