BATON ROUGE - This week is CPR and AED awareness week, and a new bill would teach student athletes and their parents about sudden cardiac arrest prior to sports play.

The organization who brought the bill, HB252, to Rep. Michael Johnson, R-Pineville, is Gray's Army Foundation. It was founded by Dale and Michelle Temple, who lost their 16-year-old son Grayson to sudden cardiac arrest in 2021.

"After Grayson passed we learned his cause of death, and started investigating, we learned that sudden cardiac arrest is the number one cause of death in our student athletes," his mother Michelle Temple said.

HB252 will give schools education on the signs, symptoms and risk factors of cardiac arrest. The law also says if a student athlete displays certain signs and symptoms, they will be pulled from play until cleared by a doctor. The bill's proponents say that noticing the signs is just the first step, and that schools should have a plan for dealing with sudden cardiac arrest. 

The bill unanimously passed both houses and was sent to Gov. Jeff Landry's desk on May 23, where it awaits his signature.

Michelle Temple said the year after her son passed away, nearly 23,000 other people under the age of 18 lost their lives to sudden cardiac arrest in the United States.

"I've talked to a few different schools that say they have just a very small team trained,” Michelle Temple said. “But I would encourage schools to have all staff trained and to know how to respond."

In 2022, Gray's Army got the Grayson Temple Act passed, requiring all coaches, trainers, and nurses to take a yearly course on being able to recognize cardiac arrest and how to respond.

"We want to have the sudden cardiac arrest information out there too because we're seeing more and more of our athletes and students affected," Michelle Temple said.

Michelle Temple says she's been fighting for this recognition and feels she's finally been heard.

"It's very emotional. There's times you feel defeated and no one's listening, and that you're just spinning your wheels, but then you realize our senators and representatives actually care about our youth and our athletes and are willing to add this layer of protection," she said.