Sydney school students call for earlier education on sexual relationships and consent in wake of petition

For year 12 student Ethan Nixon, an online petition containing thousands of testimonies of teenage sexual assaults has made confronting reading.

“It definitely hurt actually,” he said.

“I read quite a few of them and it was quite sad to see these people who are my age, some younger, some older, who are going through these difficult and traumatic experiences.”

The petition, calling for earlier education on sex and consent, was started by Chantal Contos, who went to a private school in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

She was motivated to act after conversations with her friends revealed that half of them had been sexually assaulted by boys from neighbouring private boys’ schools.

It was only when she and her friends were taught about…