Sydney school rape charges spark warnings over ‘all-male environments’

The arrests of two separate groups of boys from two of Sydney’s top private schools on charges of sexual assault should serve as a warning about raising boys in isolation to girls.

Leading experts said “all-male” environments such as non-co-educational schools, combined with the evils of social media, exposed young boys to not only sexist attitudes but predatory algorithms.

On August 13, three students from Scots College in Sydney’s east, which charges up to $47,000 a year in school fees, were charged over the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl.

A week later, two 17-year-olds from St Gregory’s College in Campbelltown in Sydney’s southwest, were among three teens charged with the rape of a 17-year-old girl.

Gender equality researcher Dr Terrance Fitzsimmons said the alleged incidents were emblematic of a system which sidelines strong, authoritative female voices.

“This hasn’t come out of nowhere, as much as those schools would probably like to say so,” Dr Fitzsimmons told NewsWire.

“In all boys schools, what’s happening is there’s no presence of female role models. I don’t think schools are doing nearly enough to disconfirm stereotypes,” he said.

Dr Fitzsimmons said boys raised in isolation from girls, when combined with the social media diet they are regularly being fed by predatory algorithms, are profoundly exposed to sexist attitudes.

“I think we’re just going to keep seeing it. If boys are isolated from girls both in their social media, and what they’re watching, what they’re hearing, what their mates are saying, then where are they going to learn respect?

“ Where are they going to learn that women are equal to men?,” he asked.

“If they’re not getting the messaging and not seeing it and living it, then we’re just going to get more of these incidents, I’m sorry to say.”

Speaking on News24 on Friday afternoon, Teach Us Consent founder and sexual health advocate Chanel Contos said “all-male environments” were often a common denominator in recent high profile instances of alleged sexual violence.

“In these situations, I think group mentality and group loyalty can override personal integrity, and that’s part of a problem here I think where it’s a very slippery slope from bystander to participant,” Ms Contos said.

As a high school student in 2021, Ms Contos posted an Instagram poll asking her followers if they or anybody close to them had been sexually assaulted by someone who went to an all-boys school in Sydney.