Escuela Grind has been having a rough week. It all started when guitarist Tom Sifuentes announced he’d be leaving the band (and replaced seemingly immediately) after voicing concerns over his hearing. Now Escuela Grind is coming under fire by a former driver, accusing them of everything from sexual assault by a tour manager and mistreatment.
“If anyone recalls I drove for a band for a bit,” wrote the driver in a post found below. “There was a lot of mistreatment throughout the entire tour, not just for myself, but I kept my mouth shut where I could, and just hung in there until I saw an exit. I looked crazy on the internet for a second pushing people until I got some form of apology. But, the apologies never came, I never got paid in full, you kicked my best homie out of the band, and you clowns are on your way home. So let’s fucking get it.
“[Jesse Fuentes], how fucking dare you speak to people the way you do. Whether it be people ‘working for you’, your friends, your band mates. You are trash. You think the shit you do and say is just going to disappear. You can delete hate comments but you can’t delete my experience and you can’t get rid of the people you fucked over. You boasted about leaving people on the side of the road, informed me I was simply your employee when I brought up concerns about the van and trailer. You hired a fucking tour manager THAT SEXUALLY HARASSED ME EVERY DAY. Pathetic. Coward.
“Chris Kotter, the tour manager. You talked at the side of my head for two and a half weeks and underestimated me every step of the way. You flirted with me nonstop despite me telling you every single day in every single way that I did NOT like you. No I don’t want to go camping or hiking, NO I don’t want to peg you, NO I do not think some people come along as sexual shamans, and it’s insane to me that the activist with a homemade ‘Gay Sex and Class War’ patch would be such a fucking predator. I’d spit in your face if I knew it wouldn’t give you a hard on you fucking prick.
“[Katerina Economou], it’s disgusting to me that you would stand up there on stage every night and pretend to be a voice for the girls, gays, and theys but you didn’t advocate for a single one that I saw. Weird. You allow Jesse to ruin your band’s reputation and honestly everyone’s mental health that I saw. But, I’m just a fucking driver, what do I know.
“If y’all would have taken 5 minutes to get to know me, like I spent the entire two and a half weeks getting to know y’all you’d know I was more than qualified to handle your shit. ALL THE RUMORS ARE TRUE.”
The driver then offered two follow-up comments: “Oh, and Alexandria. You are an absolute sweetheart and I really enjoyed working with you. Tom, Ryan, and Krissy. I wish you all the best. I mean that. Love and respect y’all. How funny is it though that the dude with a [penchant] for ‘clown bitches’ is runner up for most courteous in the van.”
Escuela Grind guitarist Krissy Morash has since responded to the claims, denying the sexual assault allegations and accusing the driver of not being able to do their job properly. Despite the allegations, Escuela Grind has not issued an official statement on their collective behalf.
“We were happy to let you go because not only did you lie about being able to park trailers, you let your emotions effect your driving capabilities, aggressively driving behind/yelling at other cars (we have had friends get their vans SHOT at for this) you were not getting rest for long drives and chose to party with other bands and drink before we left venues. You nearly wrecked into oncoming traffic after breaking too late on LA freeway however you couldn’t even accept suggestions for driving safer in the future (you apparently know how to drive and no one needs to tell you otherwise). I’m literally the reason why Jesse had to talk to you about behavior in Fresno and you buckled, gave up & insisted that we thought you would steal things from our van while trying to leave??
“We bought airb&bs to make sure you were comfortable but yet you had a problem with not getting to choose which bed you slept on? We had a bed in the back for you to rest in as well during the day. We were nothing but accommodating towards you.
“To insist Chris is a predator when he did not touch you or even ask to peg you is insulting when i watched you get things out of him for your own benefit. Patting his head when he would do things for you.
“Day 3 in DC after damaging our van, we still showed you love and compassion. Jesse sat and talked to you for hours in the cold because we believed in you. To turn around and not consider any of this shows your true behavior and it is disheartening
“I am not feeling the love and respect you are portraying to a small group of this band on social media. I bit my lip and waited to even say anything about this because it wasn’t anyones business and i considered you were maybe going through something in your personal life.
“While i’m still grateful for taking time out of your life to help us i hope you find other ways to deal with your incompetence in the future.”
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