“I can imagine the corridor where it happened, his hands around my neck smothering me,” she says. “So he put his hands on my pants … It was painful. I told him to stop.”
Moon says the five-hour attack took place outside of school in a secluded cabin on the south coast of England, rented for the weekend by a friend at the elite women’s boarding school she attended: Benenden. She was 15 years old.
Boys from the two all-male schools that girls used to socialize with – Eton and Tonbridge – were also there and saw her fight the attacker several times. However, no one intervened, she says.
“We are privileged children, but despite all the money that goes to math and lacrosse classes, not a penny is spent in these schools teaching students about their right to be protected against this type of behavior, which is a shame”, said Moon remembers his school days.
“And it is important to talk about it because these are the men who, in some cases, will rule the country,” she adds.
Eton, who educated several British prime ministers, including incumbent Boris Johnson, and princes William and Harry, told CNN via email that he conducts workshops on healthy relationships, teaching students about consent. He said that he always takes specific allegations very seriously, supporting affected people and working with the police and child services when appropriate.
“Protecting the well-being of young people is our highest priority,” said Eton in a statement. “Everyone involved in education has a responsibility to recognize that we can and must do more to make meaningful and sustained changes, for the benefit of all young people.”
The school did not respond to specific CNN questions about what Zan Moon claimed.
‘Rape Culture’
As a growing number of young women in the UK, Moon is talking about her experiences – and soliciting other people’s memories – to break the stigma of discussing a “rape culture” that they say is common in schools.
What broke out was a chorus of anger, drowning out the deafening silence that once surrounded the issue of sexual violence among schoolchildren.
After compiling a 15-page dossier of alleged incidents at various institutions, Moon wrote an open letter to the chiefs of Eton, Tonbridge and others, notifying them of the “chauvinism” she said “runs deep in private schools for boys in the UK. “” It ends now, “she wrote.
James Priory, the principal of Tonbridge, expressed “significant concern” after reading Moon’s letter, saying in a statement that such behavior had no place at his school. Tonbridge also said in a statement that he teaches consent to his students and forwards incidents to the authorities when necessary.
“’We will be listening carefully to our students, staff and alumni, as well as anyone who has contacted us directly from outside the School, to establish what else we can do to ensure that sexual harassment and abuse is never accepted and that everyone they will feel supported and able to move forward if they wish, “he said.
Moon’s letter follows the Everyone’s Invited initiative, a website that brought together more than 13,000 testimonials detailing the culture of rape in British schools by current students and alumni.
They include reports of 10-year-olds being mugged, 12-year-olds being sexed and disturbing allegations of rape – all well below the UK’s legal age of consent at 16. The testimonies also include allegations of incidents in public schools and universities, highlighting the widespread nature of harassment and violence against women in the UK – an issue recently raised by the murder of 33-year-old Londoner Sarah Everard, attacked while walking to a friend’s house.
“It’s much broader than just the schools that have been named,” says the founder of Everyone’s Invited Soma Sara, a Londoner and a former student at the Wycombe Abbey girls’ school. “There is a culture throughout our society of accepting sexual assault and harassment. It is a culture that trivializes and normalizes the worst behaviors and that can create an environment where sexual violence can exist and thrive.”
A new help line and promised action
“Subsequently, we received several reports of specific crimes.
In addition, where schools have been named on this site, police are making contact with these schools and offering expert support to any potential victims of sexual assault, “wrote the Metropolitan Police in a press release.
“We understand the complex and varied reasons why many victim-survivors do not contact the authorities, but I want to personally reassure anyone who needs our help that we are absolutely here to help you,” said the detective responsible for rape and sex crimes Superintendent Mel Laremore.
The anonymous nature of the posts shared on these platforms makes it difficult to analyze the claims, unless they are specific.
“We are deeply shocked and horrified by the allegations that have surfaced recently. The Highgate they describe is totally contrary to the values of our entire community … We are sorry.”
King’s College School in Wimbledon, southwest London, also ordered an independent review and said it would not accept any form of abuse or discrimination.
“The school has established a system to deal with disclosures made by students, past or present, and to offer support, and we ask all those affected by these issues to come forward,” he said.
Since then, the Todos’s Invited website has stopped posting school names alongside testimonials, but the debate continues. While hundreds of schools were named on the website, some current students and alumni, Like Moon – wrote open letters to principals, detailing their experiences of misogyny, abuse and sexual violence.
A letter, written by former Dulwich College student Samuel Schulenburg, accused the South London boys’ school of being “a breeding ground for sexual predators”. The letter was written to its former principal to raise awareness of the problems in Dulwich, and detailed anonymous stories of sexual violence and harassment presented by girls at James Allen’s Girls School (JAGS), the sister school of Dulwich College.
In response to the open letter and the anonymous allegations, Dulwich College principal Joe Spence said in a statement, “The behavior described is distressing and totally unacceptable; we condemn it without reservation.”
“While we are unable to comment on anonymous testimonials, any specific and substantiated allegations will be addressed and will involve outside officials where appropriate,” added Spence. “As a school for boys, the first thing we have to do is listen to what women and girls are telling us about their experiences and concerns, but we also have a particular role to play, as boys educators, in making a difference.”
Victims asked to change schools
“Each time we are going to do a series of our sessions on healthy relationships, we are going to get young people to come forward and tell us about the experiences they have had,” said Brailsford. She added that it is “very common” for schools to suggest that girls with disclosure leave school, “even if they are not the ones who perpetrated sexual assault”.
Women’s rights activists say this is not surprising in a country where sexual violence is now being processed at a much lower rate than in past years.
“I only realized very recently that most sexual intercourse I had when I was younger was not what I would describe as consensual,” says Moon.
“The entire system of high-level private schools is set up to protect the boy’s prospects and the school’s reputation. That is the priority, ”said Moon. “What happens to us, girls, doesn’t matter to them.”
Li-Lian Ahlskog Hou contributed to this report.