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Signs of trust: Interpreter, student forge 12-year relationship | The Montgomery Advertiser | montgomeryadvertiser.com
Josh Brewer was 20 when he walked into a first-grade class*room and met a 6-year-old deaf student named Zach Kerger. That was 12 years ago -- the two have been together almost ev*ery school day since.
Neither had any idea this would occur from that first meeting.
Brewer signed, "Hey."
Kerger looked at him, but paid little at*tention. Instead, he started running around the classroom with other children at Daniel Pratt Elementary School during the teacher-student orientation night.
The next few meetings weren't that much more productive.
"I think in the first few weeks, (he) kind of just stared at me," Brewer said. "I was trying to make my sign language very simple and understandable."
But the trust and confidence between Kerger and Brewer grew. Brewer had to be confident that he could set the standard as the school district's first interpreter. Just two years out of high school, he ad*mits that was stressful.
Kerger needed trust -- trust that Brew*er would take him where he needed in the academic setting.
It is a partnership that, at least acade*mically, will finally end in May as Kerger graduates from Prattville High School.
When the two first met, Kerger didn't have a lot of sign language skill, and look*ed to Brewer for guidance -- for the trans*lation of his education. They've been to*gether almost every single school day and Brewer soon realized his job was more than just academics.
"You have the social aspect," he said. "You have the bells, the announcements ... you have whatever the teacher is say*ing. I try to be available for the school ex*perience."
The two recently sat together in a con*ference room at the high school, both sign-ing, and Brewer speaking verbally for them both.
"A lot of people think he's there all the time," the 18-year-old Kerger said. "But it is just during the school day. A lot of people think he is my dad, or my cousin or my uncle."
The connection between them is undeniable. While it is easy to "have" to be con*nected -- Kerger must al*ways watch Brewer to know what's going on in class -- they have grown into an al*most familial relationship.
"You're not just my inter*preter, you're kind of like my big brother helping me out," Brewer interpreted verbally as Kerger signed.
Hearing loss and school placement
Kerger does not remember what it is like to hear sounds.
He could hear up until age 3, when his cochlear became weak following a bout with meningitis. Two years later, the Autauga County resident attended kindergarten at a Montgomery school.
Back then, Autauga Coun*ty contracted with Montgom*ery County to send hearing-impaired students to Mont*gomery for their education.
Kerger's mom, Darlene Kerger, didn't want that be*cause "we live in this coun*ty," she said. "I'm glad that Josh was with him and stayed with him. Being deaf, he didn't feel so ... alone. He felt someone was there that he could communicate with."
Both mom and son say there is not a lot of signing at home, but rather "a lot of un*derstanding each other," Darlene Kerger said. "He's a typical teenager."
There's the understanding, and also the fact that her son's verbal communication has improved since the be*ginning of high school.
"The reason, really, that I'm a good communicator is because I hang out with hear*ing people all of the time," Zach Kerger said. "I don't re*ally hang out with deaf peo*ple, so I use body language with them and can perceive what people are trying to say without them having to sign."
He uses that communica*tion when he's in the lunch*room without his interpret*er, and to communicate with his girlfriend of six months, Whitney. And he uses a more popular form of communicat*ing -- texting -- all the time, even to Brewer sometimes on the weekends just to say hel*lo.
District's first interpreter
Before starting his job with the Autauga County school district, Brewer had only worked with one other stu*dent for two years following an intense interpretation course at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Sign language is some*thing Brewer grew up around -- his grandmother was deaf, and consequently, there were seven interpret*ers in the family.
"She was very proud ... be*cause she felt she was con*tributing -- she felt she was responsible, in a way, of pop*ulating the interpreting pro*fession," Brewer said.
Brewer graduated from Lee High School in 1997, and following the nine-week pro*gram in Tennessee, started interpreting for a 19-year-old student at Troy University.
Shortly after that student moved, Brewer heard of an opening in Autauga County for an interpreter, and found himself moving from college -- to the first grade.
"It was a big change, but I was happy with it," he said. "There was less stress, for sure, but it wasn't easier. The situation was not easier. I had a lot of experience, and learned Zach didn't have a lot of language skills.
"I felt a lot of responsibility for his language develop*ment."
He wasn't just charged with teaching Kerger, but also with setting the example as the district's first inter*preter. This was so new to Kerger as well, that for the longest time, he thought Brewer also was deaf.
"I was 20, and wanted to make sure I was doing the profession a good service," Brewer said, adding less than a handful of interpreters have been hired since in the Autauga County school sys*tem. "I had a lot of pressure to make sure I set it up right, if interpreters came in after me. I wanted to set it up to have a precedence that was sustainable."
When Brewer was 21, he became a nationally certified interpreter through the Reg*istry of Interpreters for the Deaf. And around that time, he also received his license to interpret in the state of Ala*bama.
Kerger signs to Josh that if it weren't for him, he proba*bly would have attended the Alabama School for the Deaf in Talladega, and that he wouldn't have had "hearing friends."
While the Talladega school was an option, it never was a consideration, she said.
"We were never going to do that," Darlene Kerger said. "We were always going to fight to have everything (in Autauga County) ... because this is his family and this is where he lives.
"Just because he is deaf does not mean I want to send him away."
Josh Brewer has had a lot of "firsts" as an interpreter for Kerger.
Since the two met 12 years ago, Brewer has gotten mar*ried and is expecting his fourth child. The two have been through not-so-humor*ous miscommunication, driver's education, wrestling matches and Prattville High School football games where Kerger participated on the cheerleading squad.
Driver's education also was new to Brewer.
It "was funny because Josh had to sit in the back seat," Kerger said.
"Zach could look in the mirror and see my face, like this ..." he pauses, making a straight face, wide eyes fo*cused straight ahead, "and I have my seat belt on and ev*erything. It was funny."
Not-so-funny was a day when Kerger was in eighth grade, and Brewer called in sick to work. Nobody notified Kerger.
Kerger's English teacher asked him where Brewer was, and he communicated to them that his wife was hav*ing a baby. His wife was only three to four months preg*nant.
Shortly after, Brewer's mom arrived at her son's house concerned "because she heard my wife was hav*ing her baby," Brewer said.
There is a pause in the in*terview.
"My bad," Kerger signs.
If there were any frustrat*ing moments, the two weren't specific about them, but did agree that eighth grade was a bad year.
"Let me think, let me think," Kerger says, holding his head in one hand, laugh*ing, as he remembers that year. "When I was a teenager .... you know, things were changing. There were things I was frustrated with, that I didn't like about myself at that time, and he helped me."
Brewer told Kerger that year that his personal life was his personal life, "and it's not my job to preach to you, or tell you what you should do or not do.
"I think he understood that," Brewer said. "To be fair, I had been with him for eight years then, and I cared for him. And when you care for someone, you want to see good things happen."
Last year together
Kerger sits in an algebra class taught by Linton Bea*vers. The top of Kerger's desk is empty, and he watches the problems that Beavers writes on an overhead screen, then to Brewer, then back to the teacher.
"Math is the hardest sub*ject to interpret," Brewer said. "He has to write down numbers, look at the instruc*tor, and then pay attention to what I'm saying. You can't put one eye on the teacher and one eye on the paper."
It would be nice, though, "if I could have some kind of surgery that would allow (that)," Kerger said.
Kerger has never received extra time for tests, and his reading and writing skills are the same as his peers. Kerger's dream is to teach high school athletics, or be an athletic trainer for high school or college.
"Or, whatever ... some*thing that is cool," he said.
Right now, he plans to at*tend Auburn Montgomery, and will have a new inter*preter once there.
Every year, between first grade and second, between second and third -- and so on through 12th -- Brewer was asked the same question: Are you going to the next grade with him?
Brewer would say, "Well, if he's here. I don't have plans to go anywhere else.
"I have a wonderful job, work with wonderful people, and the school system has been great to me. And (Zach) has been good. Not eighth grade, though."
They laugh.
Asked whether this is a connection -- a friendship, a partnership -- that will last past graduation, the first an*swer comes from Kerger.
"Until we die," he says.
Josh Brewer was 20 when he walked into a first-grade class*room and met a 6-year-old deaf student named Zach Kerger. That was 12 years ago -- the two have been together almost ev*ery school day since.
Neither had any idea this would occur from that first meeting.
Brewer signed, "Hey."
Kerger looked at him, but paid little at*tention. Instead, he started running around the classroom with other children at Daniel Pratt Elementary School during the teacher-student orientation night.
The next few meetings weren't that much more productive.
"I think in the first few weeks, (he) kind of just stared at me," Brewer said. "I was trying to make my sign language very simple and understandable."
But the trust and confidence between Kerger and Brewer grew. Brewer had to be confident that he could set the standard as the school district's first interpreter. Just two years out of high school, he ad*mits that was stressful.
Kerger needed trust -- trust that Brew*er would take him where he needed in the academic setting.
It is a partnership that, at least acade*mically, will finally end in May as Kerger graduates from Prattville High School.
When the two first met, Kerger didn't have a lot of sign language skill, and look*ed to Brewer for guidance -- for the trans*lation of his education. They've been to*gether almost every single school day and Brewer soon realized his job was more than just academics.
"You have the social aspect," he said. "You have the bells, the announcements ... you have whatever the teacher is say*ing. I try to be available for the school ex*perience."
The two recently sat together in a con*ference room at the high school, both sign-ing, and Brewer speaking verbally for them both.
"A lot of people think he's there all the time," the 18-year-old Kerger said. "But it is just during the school day. A lot of people think he is my dad, or my cousin or my uncle."
The connection between them is undeniable. While it is easy to "have" to be con*nected -- Kerger must al*ways watch Brewer to know what's going on in class -- they have grown into an al*most familial relationship.
"You're not just my inter*preter, you're kind of like my big brother helping me out," Brewer interpreted verbally as Kerger signed.
Hearing loss and school placement
Kerger does not remember what it is like to hear sounds.
He could hear up until age 3, when his cochlear became weak following a bout with meningitis. Two years later, the Autauga County resident attended kindergarten at a Montgomery school.
Back then, Autauga Coun*ty contracted with Montgom*ery County to send hearing-impaired students to Mont*gomery for their education.
Kerger's mom, Darlene Kerger, didn't want that be*cause "we live in this coun*ty," she said. "I'm glad that Josh was with him and stayed with him. Being deaf, he didn't feel so ... alone. He felt someone was there that he could communicate with."
Both mom and son say there is not a lot of signing at home, but rather "a lot of un*derstanding each other," Darlene Kerger said. "He's a typical teenager."
There's the understanding, and also the fact that her son's verbal communication has improved since the be*ginning of high school.
"The reason, really, that I'm a good communicator is because I hang out with hear*ing people all of the time," Zach Kerger said. "I don't re*ally hang out with deaf peo*ple, so I use body language with them and can perceive what people are trying to say without them having to sign."
He uses that communica*tion when he's in the lunch*room without his interpret*er, and to communicate with his girlfriend of six months, Whitney. And he uses a more popular form of communicat*ing -- texting -- all the time, even to Brewer sometimes on the weekends just to say hel*lo.
District's first interpreter
Before starting his job with the Autauga County school district, Brewer had only worked with one other stu*dent for two years following an intense interpretation course at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Sign language is some*thing Brewer grew up around -- his grandmother was deaf, and consequently, there were seven interpret*ers in the family.
"She was very proud ... be*cause she felt she was con*tributing -- she felt she was responsible, in a way, of pop*ulating the interpreting pro*fession," Brewer said.
Brewer graduated from Lee High School in 1997, and following the nine-week pro*gram in Tennessee, started interpreting for a 19-year-old student at Troy University.
Shortly after that student moved, Brewer heard of an opening in Autauga County for an interpreter, and found himself moving from college -- to the first grade.
"It was a big change, but I was happy with it," he said. "There was less stress, for sure, but it wasn't easier. The situation was not easier. I had a lot of experience, and learned Zach didn't have a lot of language skills.
"I felt a lot of responsibility for his language develop*ment."
He wasn't just charged with teaching Kerger, but also with setting the example as the district's first inter*preter. This was so new to Kerger as well, that for the longest time, he thought Brewer also was deaf.
"I was 20, and wanted to make sure I was doing the profession a good service," Brewer said, adding less than a handful of interpreters have been hired since in the Autauga County school sys*tem. "I had a lot of pressure to make sure I set it up right, if interpreters came in after me. I wanted to set it up to have a precedence that was sustainable."
When Brewer was 21, he became a nationally certified interpreter through the Reg*istry of Interpreters for the Deaf. And around that time, he also received his license to interpret in the state of Ala*bama.
Kerger signs to Josh that if it weren't for him, he proba*bly would have attended the Alabama School for the Deaf in Talladega, and that he wouldn't have had "hearing friends."
While the Talladega school was an option, it never was a consideration, she said.
"We were never going to do that," Darlene Kerger said. "We were always going to fight to have everything (in Autauga County) ... because this is his family and this is where he lives.
"Just because he is deaf does not mean I want to send him away."
Josh Brewer has had a lot of "firsts" as an interpreter for Kerger.
Since the two met 12 years ago, Brewer has gotten mar*ried and is expecting his fourth child. The two have been through not-so-humor*ous miscommunication, driver's education, wrestling matches and Prattville High School football games where Kerger participated on the cheerleading squad.
Driver's education also was new to Brewer.
It "was funny because Josh had to sit in the back seat," Kerger said.
"Zach could look in the mirror and see my face, like this ..." he pauses, making a straight face, wide eyes fo*cused straight ahead, "and I have my seat belt on and ev*erything. It was funny."
Not-so-funny was a day when Kerger was in eighth grade, and Brewer called in sick to work. Nobody notified Kerger.
Kerger's English teacher asked him where Brewer was, and he communicated to them that his wife was hav*ing a baby. His wife was only three to four months preg*nant.
Shortly after, Brewer's mom arrived at her son's house concerned "because she heard my wife was hav*ing her baby," Brewer said.
There is a pause in the in*terview.
"My bad," Kerger signs.
If there were any frustrat*ing moments, the two weren't specific about them, but did agree that eighth grade was a bad year.
"Let me think, let me think," Kerger says, holding his head in one hand, laugh*ing, as he remembers that year. "When I was a teenager .... you know, things were changing. There were things I was frustrated with, that I didn't like about myself at that time, and he helped me."
Brewer told Kerger that year that his personal life was his personal life, "and it's not my job to preach to you, or tell you what you should do or not do.
"I think he understood that," Brewer said. "To be fair, I had been with him for eight years then, and I cared for him. And when you care for someone, you want to see good things happen."
Last year together
Kerger sits in an algebra class taught by Linton Bea*vers. The top of Kerger's desk is empty, and he watches the problems that Beavers writes on an overhead screen, then to Brewer, then back to the teacher.
"Math is the hardest sub*ject to interpret," Brewer said. "He has to write down numbers, look at the instruc*tor, and then pay attention to what I'm saying. You can't put one eye on the teacher and one eye on the paper."
It would be nice, though, "if I could have some kind of surgery that would allow (that)," Kerger said.
Kerger has never received extra time for tests, and his reading and writing skills are the same as his peers. Kerger's dream is to teach high school athletics, or be an athletic trainer for high school or college.
"Or, whatever ... some*thing that is cool," he said.
Right now, he plans to at*tend Auburn Montgomery, and will have a new inter*preter once there.
Every year, between first grade and second, between second and third -- and so on through 12th -- Brewer was asked the same question: Are you going to the next grade with him?
Brewer would say, "Well, if he's here. I don't have plans to go anywhere else.
"I have a wonderful job, work with wonderful people, and the school system has been great to me. And (Zach) has been good. Not eighth grade, though."
They laugh.
Asked whether this is a connection -- a friendship, a partnership -- that will last past graduation, the first an*swer comes from Kerger.
"Until we die," he says.
