Teacher offers understanding, guidance to students
“These are kids who are going to change the world one day, if they’re able to be in the world.”
“I want my students to be advocates for themselves. One of my girls last year was having issues in class, and she came to my room mad. She said, ‘That’s it. We’re going into that class. We’re teaching them about autism.’ I said, ‘Let’s do it.’ We did, and it was great.
“I also had a boy with Tourette syndrome. He made all kinds of vocal tics. One day he said, ‘I’m tired of kids bullying me and picking on me. Let’s go teach them about it.’ And we did. He’s now a senior, and he’s doing amazing.
“In both cases, all the teasing stopped. It’s like kids don’t understand them, so they tend to tease them because they’re a little different. But once they learned about autism and Tourette’s, it’s been great.
Jennifer Nerf also coaches the cheerleading squad at Baytown Junior School.
“I like to say that the kids I work with have an invisible disability. You can’t see it. They might be in pre-AP classes, and you don’t realize it. It’s just a different wiring. But some of the most famous people have high-functioning autism. These are kids who are going to change the world one day, if they’re able to be in the world. If they’re not at home sitting in a dark place because they don’t know how to deal with society. They just need a little understanding and guidance. They’re going to be something big one day, if they have the right tools to get there and learn how to do it on their own.”
— Jennifer Nerf
Jennifer teaches at Baytown Junior School and directs the FOCUS (Focusing On Communicating and Understanding Social Skills) program for Goose Creek CISD. It is designed for students with high-functioning pervasive developmental disorders, including autism, social communication disorder, anxiety disorder and other related challenges.
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