Brad Cohen (born December 18, 1973) is an American motivational speaker, teacher, school administrator, and author who has severe Tourette syndrome (TS). Cohen described his experiences growing up with the condition in his 2005 book, Front of the Class: How Tourette Syndrome Made Me the Teacher I Never Had, co-authored with Lisa Wysocky. The book has been made into a 2008 Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie titled Front of the Class, and adapted into a hit 2018 Bollywood film Hichki.
Cohen was born December 18, 1973. During his childhood, Cohen was accused of being a troublemaker in school and was punished by his teachers for the tics and noises caused by TS. He decided to "become the teacher that he never had". After he graduated and received his teaching certificate, 24 elementary schools rejected him before he was hired at Tritt Elementary School in Cobb County, Georgia. As a new teacher, he was named Georgia's First Class Teacher of the Year.
Early life
Cohen grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, in a Jewish family. His parents divorced during his early childhood. Cohen barked and twitched constantly during his waking hours, and would knock his knee against the inside of the car door. Someone asked his mother once if she had considered an exorcist. His mother was compassionate, but his father did not understand why his son did the things he did, often getting frustrated and punishing him for making noises or other physical tics.
Doctors initially told Cohen's mother that his tics were an emotional reaction to his parents' divorce. Teachers did not understand Cohen; they thought he was mischievous, due to the noises (tics) caused by his TS. His fifth-grade teacher forced him to walk to the front of the classroom to apologize for the noises he made and promise that he would never make them again. He felt humiliated and decided that he would become the teacher he never had, saying: "I always felt like the kid in the corner. I really needed support and acceptance from my teacher and didn't get it. From then on, I knew that I wanted to be that teacher—one who would offer support and acceptance and really be there for each kid." When Cohen was 12 years old, his mother identified his behavior as TS from her own research. She took him to a Tourette syndrome support group meeting, where Cohen realized that other attendees "seemed resigned to a life of defeat" and was "inspired to triumph over the disorder".
In the beginning of eighth grade, after Cohen appeared on the Sally Jessy Raphaël show, his middle-school principal decided to let Cohen speak to the school about his Tourette syndrome. Cohen continued to educate people about TS, increasing his confidence and speaking skills.
Cohen graduated from Parkway Central High School in 1992, and was president of the St. Louis Council of Aleph Zadik Aleph.
College and later life
Cohen attended Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, where he majored in elementary education and was a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi. During his first week at school, he was kicked out of a local fast food restaurant when an employee thought he was drunk and threatened to call the police, even as Cohen and his friends were trying to explain about his vocal tics and TS. Within hours, fellow students began to organize a boycott of the restaurant; the manager phoned Cohen and asked him to come back to the restaurant so he could apologize in person.
After graduating cum laude with many academic honors, Cohen moved to Atlanta, Georgia in the 1990s to seek employment, applying to numerous elementary schools for a teaching position. He interviewed with administrators, but his interviews were always punctuated by his tics. He was rejected 24 times before Mountain View Elementary School hired him to teach the second and third grades. Cohen, who taught about his Tourette syndrome at the beginning of each year, was popular with students; one parent requested his child be removed from his class, but asked to have the child moved back only weeks later. He was awarded the Sallie Mae First Class Teacher of the Year in 1997. Cohen later taught second grade at Tritt Elementary School in suburban Atlanta, before leaving the classroom on the path to becoming a school administrator, supervising other teachers. As of 2013, he is assistant vice principal at Addison Elementary School in Cobb County, Georgia.
Cohen was less lucky in romance, saying, "We called it second-date syndrome: I couldn't get past the first date." Cohen met Nancy Lazarus of Charleston, South Carolina, through an Internet dating service; they married in June 2006 and have two children.