This moment crystallises a very uncomfortable truth about sexual violence

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 serious of corporate scandals, and the tactics they used to stop the story spreading into a deeper probe of their own environment.

Leaders of high-profile institutions walk a tightrope at times like these. Few facts are known, guilt is not proven, there are risks of jeopardising a trial. Yet it is during these early days that feelings and fury are most fresh. It’s the window of time that we turn to these institutions for moral authority, a signal of social standards.

So we can take the reaction this week as a barometer of broader change. The Swans and AFL have been largely commended for taking a strong stance , suspending players, apologising and affirming women’s right to safety. Scots, meanwhile, faces criticism over allegations it is protecting the boys and the school’s reputation for financial reasons, claims the headmaster rejects.

They may be united by prestige, but the Swans and Scots are dealing with different stakes.

The Swans need to show their corporate partners and 75,000 members, many of whom are families, they take these issues seriously. Their brand is built on community trust. Scots, on the other hand, needs to maintain confidence among a much smaller circle, of both current and prospective fee-paying parents.

The Swans’ response suggests that social expectations have shifted, particularly post #MeToo, and there is no longer widespread public tolerance for silence or excuses.