This moment crystallises a very uncomfortable truth about sexual violence

August 21, 2026 — 9:50am

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Every few years a sexual assault story catalyses a moment of public reckoning about how we treat women and girls in society. This week, the conversation arrived when sexual assault allegations were levelled against students of Scots College, and days later, a player from the Sydney Swans.

These events are not the same, nor are the alleged perpetrators. The accused are underage boys in one case, and a high-profile sportsman in the other. Their different roles in society come with different expectations of public scrutiny.

But they are bound by their attachment to institutions that our society holds in prestige: high-fee private schools and prominent sports clubs, for which reputation is currency. Some scoff at the special status attributed to these places, but they capture our curiosity because of the insights they shed into cultures of power, or privilege.

It has brought me back to my reporting from five years ago, when I was writing about sexual assault and consent education as an online petition by Sydney woman Chanel Contos prompted hundreds of young women to share graphic stories about being violated by their male peers at private schools. A natural question follows: has anything changed?

When we look at the alleged behaviour, clearly not enough. When we consider the way these powerful bodies respond, it’s more complicated.

One of the many things that struck me while reporting in 2021 was how the schools responded. A couple, mainly heads of girls’ schools, offered to speak straight away. Others were deeply reluctant. I was most surprised, perhaps naively, by the schools that brought in crisis communications firms, otherwise held on retainer by big companies for the most........

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