Father of the Year Nominee (or not - see update)

***** POST UPDATED (1/27/06) SCROLL DOWN *****

I gotta agree with Lee on this one. There isn't a jury in America (outside of Massachusetts, anyway) that would put this guy away.

TAMPA, Fla. (Jan. 25) - A father marched into a classroom and punched a teacher's assistant in the face after his teenage daughter accused the man of inappropriately touching her.

"I'm not real proud of what I did," Dave F. Swafford, 42, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "You have to protect your children, and my daughter does not lie to me."

Assuming his daughter was being truthful, this guy deserves a fucking medal of commendation.

A Tampa radio station named him "Father of the Year," offering Swafford and his family Daytona 500 race tickets.

Or NASCAR tickets...close enough.

What's kinda creeping me out about this story, though, is that if I grew my beard out and put on a few pounds, I'd be a dead ringer for this guy.



UPDATE: She lied.

Manatee County School Officials say the girl made the whole story up, and her girlfriends helped her.

They say she was in detention because she poured coke from a second story window on another student.

The person who saw her do it was the teacher's aide that was punched. That's why she was sent to detention.

She made up the story to get back at him. She asked her girl friends to back her story.

In the process of the investigation, one of the girls cracked, and admitted it was a fabrication.

The girls face possible expulsion from school.

At the time the teacher's aide was accused of improperly touching the student, he was on videotape that showed him on the other side of the school.

As I said in the comments:

I think Daddy's little angel just cost him his house, boat, car, life savings, rare Skynyrd vinyl collection...

(link via reader DJ)