Dover teen advocates for NH’s first seizure-safe schools law
Foster's Daily Democrat
April 8, 2026, 5:10 a.m. ET
DOVER — Parker Hadd, a Dover High School senior, is testifying before the New Hampshire House in support of legislation to improve safety for kids with epilepsy in schools.
Hadd, 18, said he was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 9, and has undergone multiple brain surgeries. He said he's been seizure-free for about five years now.
"I have really looked back at my community, and it was a really tough thing I had to go through," Hadd said. "It was hard just to try to get closure from all that."
Parker Hadd, center, a Dover High School senior, is an advocate for students with epilepsy, supported by his mother, Krystle, left, and his brother, Kellen. Provided By Epilepsy Foundation New England
Hadd joined the Epilepsy Foundation's Teens Speak Up! & Public Policy Institute. He went to Washington D.C., to share his story with lawmakers, and "to help advocate for others and then policies supporting individuals with epilepsy. It lit a spark in me and made me want to start my advocacy journey."
Hadd previously testified to New Hampshire state senators, gaining bipartisan support for SB433-FN, which has passed the Senate. It is being called the state's "first seizure-safe schools bill," according to the Epilepsy Foundation New England. The legislation is now going to the House, where Hadd was set to testify April 8 in Concord before the Education Policy and Administration Committee.
The bill states it would require schools to train at least two personnel on how to recognize symptoms of seizures and how to administer medication, with parent or guardian permission, as well as establish seizure education programs.
Hadd's personal journey helps him find greater purpose
Hadd said he was diagnosed with epilepsy around third grade.
"When most kids worried about how many Fortnite skins they had, or 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," Hadd wrote in a prepared statement.
Hadd added, as a "military child, I was used to change, but nothing could prepare me for this."
His mother, Krystle Hadd, said her husband has been in the Army for 20 years, so they've "been all around." They previously lived in the Fayetteville, North Carolina, area, before moving to Dover in 2019 to be closer to Boston Children's Hospital.
How NH legislation would help kids with epilepsy
Parker Hadd said he had many struggles during middle and elementary school with epilepsy, "especially with medication and having seizures, it was really difficult for teachers to be able to recognize seizures, and the medication side effects were really bad."
He said the legislation he's supporting would reduce stigma around seizures and give school staff "assurance of how to take care of a seizure, the ins and outs of what to do and then also what not to do."
Krystle Hadd said Parker has needed rescue medication twice, and both times he was in a hospital, where the staff was ready.
"It makes you think about what would have happened if he was in the school setting," she said.
She said in a school with hundreds of children normally the first person responding to the student won't be the nurse, it'll be a teacher or other staff.
"It's important that all of the staff is trained on how to administer this medication and what it is and how critical it is that the student gets it in time," she said.
She noted Dover schools allowed her son's medication to be brought to school, but that's not currently the case at all schools.
Parker Hadd said his experience with epilepsy has "reshaped" his life, and helped to become "resilient, compassionate, and determined to make a difference."