Like character Hal, director 'Jeffrey Blitz (I)' also had a stammer when a teenager and joined his high school debate team. Unlike Hal, he went on to be a success and won prizes.
After Ginny first speaks with Hal on the school bus, we are show a shot of Hal looking out the window at her, the bus pulls off and we notice that the first window behind him is a emergency exit and the next holds a wheelchair lift. When we cut back to an internal shot of the bus, we can see there is no wheelchair lift on the bus.