In 2021, brave voices have raised the country’s consciousness about the alarming prevalence of sexual violence in Australia. The sexual assault and harassment allegations currently consuming Australia’s Parliament have highlighted that this is an issue occurring in the nation’s most powerful institutions and workplaces. However, problems of gendered violence are not confined to politics, nor to workplaces. An online petition, in which thousands of current and former students shared stories of the sexual violence they experienced as school students, demonstrates that this is a serious problem at all levels of Australian society.
This national attention on the pervasiveness of gendered violence has resulted in a push – especially from young people – for greater education about safety, consent and respect in Australian schools. According to The Educator, the aim of improving consent education in schools is clear: “craft young people into respectful [individuals] so that disrespectful attitudes and behaviours do not materialise once they become adults”.
Over the past month, schools all across Australia have demonstrated that they are listening to the concerns of young people and are taking this issue seriously. Schools cannot, and should not, be solely responsible for teaching young people about consent and respectful relationships. Parents, and the wider community, also need to be very much involved in this process. However, schools could certainly play an important role in shifting the way that young people understand and think about sexual consent through a thoughtful and formal approach to consent education.
On 18 February 2021, Chanel Contos, a former student at an independent girls’ school in Sydney, began an online petition demanding change in Australia’s sex education curriculum. Ms Contos launched the petition after discussions with female peers led her to realise young women had “unlimited rape stories” to share from their time at school. The petition, published on TeachUsContent.Com, calls for holistic sexuality education to be taught earlier and more comprehensively in schools.
The petition now has over 39,000 signatures and is accompanied by nearly 4000 testimonies, which detail experiences of sexual assault and harassment that young people, mostly young women, had while they were school students. Although the testimonies were initially focused on the sexual violence experienced and perpetrated by students at Sydney independent schools, they have grown to include schools across all sectors and around Australia. It is clear that this is an issue that must be addressed by all schools.
There have been a variety of responses to the petition:
Clearly, this is a watershed moment for the Australian community in recognising the importance of addressing sexual violence among young people. For some people though, there continues to be questions around how we can best address these issues and the role that consent education has to play.
In working towards the prevention of sexual assault, consent education is crucial. Young people need to be equipped with information and skills that will enable them to navigate consent respectfully. Jonathon Crowe, professor of Law at Bond University and Co-Director of Research at Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy, says that young people need to be explicitly taught “what consent looks like and how they can make that a reality in their own sexual encounters”.
Teaching consent can be approached from a variety of different angles, in order to ensure that it is age appropriate for children. Young children do not initially need to be taught about consent in the context of sexual encounters. They can learn about what constitutes a healthy relationship between individuals, which may include learning about communication, trust, mutual respect, asking permission and abiding by the answer. Young children can also be taught ‘protective behaviours’, which includes teaching them the proper names for body parts, what is private and how to respect their bodies.
There are various opinions about the age at which it is appropriate for children to learn specifically about sexual consent. By way of example, according to Schneider and Hirsch (2020), a key principle of consent education is that students should receive the education before the onset of risk behaviours and at a developmental moment where the information provided is relevant and appropriate. In other words, young people should be learning about the nuances of sexual consent and its communication before they become sexually active.
A survey of 13,000 adolescents in the UK suggests that intimate activities such as holding hands, kissing and sexual touching is normal for children in the 11 to 13 age group. Many of the adolescents reported having kissed by age 12 and having been touched or touched a partner under clothing. In other words, many young people are engaging in intimate and sexual behaviours in the early years of adolescence. Delaying sexual consent education until the mid to later years of high school, as has been the approach in Australia, means that many young adolescents engage in sexual behaviours before receiving any kind of formal teaching about consent.
Hence, the current research suggests that starting consent education earlier and making it more comprehensive are important steps that Australian schools should consider taking.
It is encouraging that so many schools have been engaging in conversations about consent education. Although there has been some concern about the perceived rush to respond to the issues raised by Ms Contos’ petition, it seems undeniably positive that the education sector is taking the concerns of young people seriously.
Many schools are thinking about actions that they can take in the short-term to address concerns around sexual violence among their students. Some measures schools can take include:
The current prevalence of sexual violence experienced and perpetrated by young people is unacceptable. If schools wish to more effectively prevent and respond to sexual violence, there needs to be a continued dialogue about the best approach to consent and sexuality education. There is no quick fix to this issue but having these conversations is an important first step.
Schools are uniquely placed to respond to the challenge of sexual violence among young people. While the burden of teaching young people about respectful relationships and consent does not fall to schools alone, the role of schools should not be underestimated. Providing consent education in schools has the potential to fundamentally shift attitudes and behaviours around gendered violence.