LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — About 5,000 kids in Arkansas are living with epilepsy.
“That's a condition I’ve had since I was four," Sadie Kirk said. "It feels like my whole life."
Savanna Sexton is also living with the condition and said sometimes it makes her feel alone.
“I'm the only one in my family that I know of who it has," Sexton said. "I feel alone, but at least I have my family to support me."
A few of the thousand spent Wednesday advocating for House Bill 1315, a piece of legislation advocating for seizure safety and awareness in Arkansas schools. The bill was introduced more than a month ago.
“The seizure safe bill requires all school personnel to learn about seizure safe schools and go through training,” Kirk said.
During Wednesday’s Senate Education Committee, family members of all ages shared what the bill means to the families who navigate through the challenges brought on by epilepsy every day.
“It's kind of like a fifth member of our family," Parent David Shipley said. "It impacts how we travel how, where we go eat [and] what we can do."
Kids like Kirk, Sexton and Rhys Shipley, take it upon themselves every school year to make sure their teachers know what type of seizures they have and what to do.
“It's stressful for me and really, really hard, because there's tons and tons of different types of seizures,” Rhys Shipley said.
If House Bill 1315 becomes law, it would make sure students with epilepsy don’t have to carry that stress as every school across the state would have to establish an action plan and complete training.
“These students spend most of their time at school, so why not protect them?" Dominique Brown with the Epilepsy Foundation said. "Families [should] be confident that if something happens, the teachers know how to respond.”
This is something that parents said would provide comfort and more importantly spread awareness.
“We're always looking for answers to make his life better,” David Shipley said.
Governor Sanders signed the "Seizure Safe Schools" bill into law on March 16, and this now makes Arkansas the 20th state with legislation like this one in the books.