Sydney’s Sex-Ed Revolution
And the importance of early consent education.
From an Instagram poll to activism, former Sydney school girl Chanel Contos asked her friends if any of them had experienced sexual assault, within days there were over 2000 testimonies from former and current students from some of Australia's top private girls' schools. Some of the allegations depicted assaults from some victims as young as thirteen. From this Chanel started an online petition urging the heads of these schools to include proper education of consent in their sexual education programs. The petition spread across social media, and within days got thousands of signatures.
The petition caught the attention of the head of one of the boys' schools named in the testimonies, and he released a response saying “we need to raise our expectations of a generation of boys in Australia that have a reputation of being self-serving, entitled, and craving instant gratification”.
It’s a problem that is not necessarily confined to the private sector. However, Australia's whole sex education system is lagging behind. There are a number of other countries, such as Sweden, The Netherlands, and France that have implemented wide spread public policy measures, that seek to protect their young people. If Australia continues to fail in delivering proper education from an early age, it will continue to condemn people to the likeliness of experiencing sexual violence or assault, similar to the thousands of testimonies written.
However, already we are starting to see progress. More than 100 private school principals have convened for a crisis meeting, as well as fifteen private school alumni associations have scheduled a workshop with Chanel Contos. The New South Wales police have advised principles of these schools to be more active in responding to claims of sexual assault from students. They released a statement following a meeting that the school leaders had committed “to establish a statement of intent to address the issue of sexual violence within NSW schools”, that will focus on consent education, protocols on reporting, and the safety, welfare and wellbeing of young people.
Although this reform sprung from this controversy, we can be glad it's at least happening now.
With the growing awareness for the importance of consent education, we are starting to see more and more countries reform their sex ed programs. In the US 38 states and the District of Colombia have enacted new laws on sex education. Notably requirements on instruction on dating and sexual violence prevention, with goals to promote healthy sexuality for young people to help them understand the process of consent. Conversations around consent are vital to be had in schools, way before students begin to have sex. Students need to have the tools to explore their sexuality in a healthy and safe way for all involved.
The state of Oregan have implemented consensual education that begins in elementary school with topics like personal boundaries, and move forward to teaching skills and affirmative consent in middle and high school. Yet, some US states still don’t realize the importance of this type of education, as Utah lawmakers reject a bill that would require teaching consent in sex education classes.
As we are culturally starting to have more free and open dialogues about sexual abuse and violence, we also need to start implementing ways to end it. Consent education could be a way to do just that. We must teach children the importance of verbal consent way earlier, so that they can have the tools to make smart and safe decisions regarding sex.
