James Lafferty, Jr. is a counselor at Mountain View High School in El Paso, Texas. He was also previously a counselor at Mountain View High, at Tejas School of Choice—an alternative high school for at-risk students in El Paso—and at Tornillo High School in Tornillo. As the former assistant principal of Onate High School in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Lafferty implemented a complete Tech Prep Curriculum with an emphasis on hands-on activities. "Onate High School," he said proudly, "is a technology school." Lafferty also worked to improve educational conditions for teenage mothers at the school through on-site nursery and parenting classes. During the same time that he was Onate's principal, Lafferty was also president of the New Mexico State Principals Association, for which he created a rigorous agenda of workshops and seminars addressing the needs of at-risk students.
