Thirty Minutes That Could Save A Child’s Life

Dumas—June 11 marked the end of a nearly three-year road for Sts. Peter and Paul Church parishioner Claudia Crunelle.
 
Because of her efforts, the lives of many school children will be saved.
Crunelle was standing with her fellow Purple Warriors of Texas in the State Capital in Austin as Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 684, also known as Sam’s Law. The legislation, which was authored by Nacogdoches state representative Travis Clardy and Mineola state senator Bryan Hughes, passed unanimously through both chambers.
 
The law is named after Kilgore resident Samantha Watkins, who was beginning her senior year in high school in September 2016 when the honor student and varsity soccer player suffered her first epileptic seizure while volunteering at a Christian camp for special needs children, according to Crunelle.
 
“She was not diagnosed with epilepsy prior to that; in fact, she didn’t even have time to be diagnosed, Crunelle said. “Three months later she had a massive seizure and she passed away. During the school year, after the seizure, her grades dropped; the teachers did not recognize this. At the time, they thought Samantha was ‘suffering’ from senioritis. She saw her counselor and her grades were dropping. They just did not recognize she was having seizures.”
 
Crunelle speaks from experience when it comes to epilepsy, since she has been battling the disease for a portion of her life. After hearing what had happened to Samantha Watkins, she knew something had to change.
Sam’s Law states that any school personnel that has any contact with children will watch a 30-minute video on seizure recognition and seizure first aid, effective with the 2019-2020 school year.
 
“I’ve been an epilepsy volunteer for 15 years,” said Crunelle, “and I’ve realized that teachers did not have the training to understand seizures. Sam’s Law provides training in seizure recognition and seizure first aid, for all school personnel who work with a child.
 
“The training is not just for epilepsy. We wanted to make sure the personnel are trained in seizure first aid too. A child can have a seizure and not have epilepsy. They play sports and can get hit in the head and have seizures. They can be dehydrated and overheated. That happens in the Texas Panhandle, all the time. If we give school personnel the tools to recognize seizures and what to do, lives can and will be saved.”
 
Crunelle and her fellow Purple Warriors took their case to Austin and in three days, visited all 181 members of the state legislature.
 
“We visited 60 offices a day,” she said, “and we spoke to all senators, representatives and their staffs. This law was so necessary and I am so grateful to all the representatives, the senators and Gov. Abbott for seeing the importance of it. It will make schools safer for children, teachers and parents. Being able to feel safer sending your child to school, everyone will feel safer.”
 
Sam’s Bill is not the end of Crunelle’s crusade for seizure training.
 
“I hope to work toward getting seizure training into our state health books,” she said. “My daughter, Gabriela Crunelle, is a teacher at Dumas High School, and she will help us get this accomplished. Our goal is to get this into our health books and require teachers to teach seizure first aid to all the students. This is for our children today and children in the future.”