MT. EPHRAIM, New Jersey — Paul St. Pierre, a 17-year-old student at Eastern High School in Voorhees Township, has spent nearly half a decade fighting for seizure safety in New Jersey.
“In 2019, I was diagnosed with epilepsy,” he said. “I had a seizure at school, and that’s where it started.”
St. Pierre and his mother, Colleen Quinn, quickly became advocates. They succeeded in getting “Paul’s Law” signed into law in 2020, which requires school staff to be trained in how to handle students who may have seizures.
Despite this victory, they realised that there was a gap in advocacy for adults who may experience seizures. So they set their sights on promoting a bill that would facilitate the creation of first aid infographics that could be placed in businesses across the state.
Fast forward to 20 November 2023, and bill A2583 was signed into law. It “requires the dissemination of seizure first aid information to employers”.
The text of the law directs the Department of Health to “create an informational brochure or poster for employers on how to provide seizure first aid to a person who has suffered a seizure in the workplace”. It also states that employers “may provide the information … to employees and display the information in a prominent place in the employer’s workplace”.
This means that, in due course, employers will be able to access and display seizure safety information in their workplaces. However, the law does not suggest that employers will be forced to do so.
Businesses such as Bobby Ray’s Taverns in Pennsauken and Mt. Ephraim are already posting the pre-existing signage, designed by Epilepsy Services New Jersey, in their workplaces. Colleen Quinn hopes it’s the spark needed to spread the word about seizure safety.
“The Department of Health will hopefully review the signs that we showed you today and then put them on their website and distribute them to employers,” she said. “Hopefully, employers who see this video will be inclined to put it up in a prominent place in their businesses to help people with epilepsy in the community at large.”
In the future, St. Pierre and his family and friends hope to advocate for federal legislation to further protect people with seizures.
“If you’re out there and you have epilepsy, you’re just like me. You’re not alone,” he said.