Against All Odds

Brad went on to college and received his education degree. After graduation, he struggled to find a school that would hire him as a teacher. "Administrators could not look past my Tourette syndrome," he says.

Then, after 24 interviews, Brad finally met someone who believed in him. Hilarie Straka, an assistant principal and former speech pathologist, convinced a reluctant elementary school principal that Brad was the best person for the job.

"He was everything that we look for in a teacher," Hilarie says. "I said, 'We can't just talk the talk. We need to walk the walk and show these parents and students that we can hire somebody with a disability.'"

Brad was hired to teach second grade. In 1997, he won the state of Georgia's First Year Teacher Award.