I am not sure what to make of this, first the story off Gigwise:
“After Front Porch Step’s Jack McElfresh was allowed to resume his place on the Warped Tour festival, despite facing a number of allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment, many musicians – including Paramore’s Hayley Williams – have taken to Twitter to voice their anger.
At the start of the year, McElfresh was accused of sexual harassment by numerous underage girls, one of whom published a detailed Tumblr post describing how McElfresh had pressured her into having phone sex and exchanging nude photos when she had just turned 16.
According to a Change.org petition, McElfresh has also been accused of exchanging similar messages with girls as young as 13. The petition asks that the musician be removed from the Vans Warped Tour line-up, and gained over 13,000 signatures.
In a lengthy statement on Front Porch Step’s Facebook, McElfresh said, “To be associated with words like child molester, pedophile, and rapist – are disgusting and deplorable and I am neither and NEVER will be. To be lumped in to that category is just gross. I have never had any romantic and/or sexual physical interaction with an underage person nor do I have the desire.”
Despite the backlash, Front Porch Step was on the bill when the tour stopped in Nashville on Wednesday (1 July). As a result, musicians such as Hayley Williams, Beartooth’s Taylor Lumley, The Wonder Years’ Nicholas Steinborn and Cute Is What We Aim For’s Seth Van Dusen, took to Twitter to voice their disapproval.”
Jack apologized and noted that he had self-esteem issues and when success with Front Porch Step’s made him attractive to girls, he took advantage of it, and stepped over the line. He got dropped from the tour, got dropped by his label. He was suicidal, and slowly he is rebuilding his life.
These girls were 16 years old. Jake is 23 years old, which would make him 22 years of age when it occurred.
Now comes the pile on by Hayley, The Wonder Years and others.
Since I am not a sixteen year old girl I can’t read how badly Jake hurt them. But since there was apparently no physical contact, maybe he has suffered enough.
What I don’t like is how social media has become a huge, distracting, shrewing hypocritical nightmare. I don’t understand when the world became so judgemental. I’m not saying Jake McElfresh doesn’t deserve some form of punishment, maybe all his punishment. What he doesn’t deserve is to be condemned by EVERYBODY, most of whom have no business condemning anyone. Will the world be happy when he kills himself for texting a dick pick?
What do you think?