Parker Hadd | Support SB433

Thank you for the opportunity to testify: My name is Parker Hadd. I am 18 years old, and a senior at Dover High School. I am here today to ask you to support Senate bill 433 the Seizure Safe Schools bill. When I was nine years old, my life was forever changed when I was diagnosed with epilepsy. As a third-grader, when most kids worried whose birthday party they’d be invited to, I was learning to live with seizures that could happen at any time. Hospital rooms replaced playgrounds. Everything felt hard and unfair. Instead of dreaming about playing in the NBA, I started dreaming about something simpler, just one week seizure-free. My seizures happened daily. Sometimes they were extremely obvious but often times they were less obvious. One of the hardest and most dangerous realities of epilepsy is that there isn’t just one kind of seizure. Some seizures are obvious and dramatic, the kind people recognize immediately. Others are quiet and easy to miss — they can look like a student staring off or daydreaming. Some seizures last only a few seconds. Others can last minutes. Some require emergency medical care. Others don’t — but only if someone knows what they’re seeing and knows how to respond. At school, that uncertainty was terrifying. Every day at school, I carried the fear that the adults around me might not recognize a seizure, or might not know how to help me. I worried about being seriously injured — about what would happen if I had a seizure and no one realized what was happening until it was too late. Growing up as a military child, I learned how to adapt quickly — changing schools, homes, and teachers was normal for me. But the constant uncertainty of not knowing whether school staff could keep me safe during a seizure was something I was not prepared for. In fifth grade I learned that my best chance at seizure freedom was brain surgery. In 2019, the Army relocated our family to New Hampshire so I could get the care I needed. I started sixth grade knowing that in January I would undergo two brain surgeries. While my classmates planned their first middle school dance, I worried about whether my hair would grow back — and whether surgery would change who I was. At twelve years old, I had two invasive brain surgeries. The first surgery was an SEEG, doctors implanted seventeen electrodes into my brain to determine where my seizures were originating. During the second surgery they performed a craniotomy and removed a portion of my parietal lobe and insula to try to stop the seizures. When the seizures came back, the disappointment was crushing — but life didn’t stop. I had to keep going. Two years later, during my eight-grade year I underwent a third surgery. Doctors performed a LITT procedure to ablate any remaining areas in my brain that were causing my seizures. Since then, I have had many challenges but have mostly been seizure free. I have my driver’s license, I got my first job, I was inducted into the National Honor Society and played for my school’s Varsity soccer team. I also just received my acceptance into the bioengineering program at the University of New Hampshire. Through years of daily seizures, hospital stays, and surgeries, I was fortunate to have parents who never stopped advocating for me. At every school I attended, they worked tirelessly to make sure staff understood my condition — that they knew what seizures could look like and how to respond safely. …and while my journey was incredibly difficult, I know many children with epilepsy face even greater challenges. People tell me I’m strong, but strength wasn’t a choice. It was survival. What this bill represents is something I didn’t always have: the assurance that someone at school would know how to help me if something went wrong. Seizure Safe Schools means teachers and staff can recognize different types of seizures. It means they know what to do — and just as importantly, what not to do. It means students like me don’t have to sit in class wondering if a medical emergency would turn into a tragedy because of lack of knowledge. Epilepsy will always be part of my life. I still take medication every day. But I’ve learned that progress isn’t about what you lose — it’s about how you rebuild. Passing the Seizure Safe Schools bill means fewer students will have to learn survival before learning algebra. It means parents can send their children to school knowing they will be understood and protected. I’m asking you to pass this bill — not just for students with epilepsy, but for every school that should be prepared when a child’s life is on the line. Thank you