Decision details

Minute by the Lord Mayor

To Council:

In recent weeks, a former student of Kambala School in Sydney, Chanel Contos, initiated an online campaign entitled ‘Teach Us Consent’ and submitted a petition to the Parliament of New South Wales calling for improvements to sex education taught in New South Wales’ schools.

The online petition has now received more than 36,000 signatures. In addition, more than 3,300 testimonies have been added, detailing a broad range of awful experiences from women when they were students. Sadly, many of these are very recent – further indication that this is an ongoing problem requiring new solutions.

I was recently contacted by a young, female City of Sydney resident, a survivor of sexual assault, to alert me to the ‘Teach Us Consent’ campaign. She noted that many of her friends had also been assaulted and that she believed these incidents could have been avoided if she and her peers had received thorough and explicit education about sexual consent.

COUNCILLOR CLOVER MOORE

Lord Mayor

Moved by the Chair (the Lord Mayor), seconded by Councillor Phelps –

It is resolved that:

(A)        Council note:

(i)          the extraordinary ‘Teach Us Consent’ campaign initiated by former Kambala School student, Chanel Contos, and the many distressing, tragic and unacceptable stories of sexual harassment and sexual assault in Australian schools that the campaign has brought to light; and

(ii)         the shocking number of past and present school students who have come forward to share their stories of sexual harassment and assault at secondary schools in New South Wales; and

(B)        the Lord Mayor be requested to write to the Premier of New South Wales to request that holistic sex education, including the nature and importance of clear consent, and LGBTQI inclusive content, be included in the New South Wales school curriculum and taught earlier in an effort to reduce the extent of sexual assault experiences amongst young people in New South Wales, as per the request of the ‘Teach Us Consent’ campaign.

Carried unanimously.

S051491