A scuba diving lesson turned fatal for a 12-year-old Texas girl has sparked a legal battle highlighting alarming safety failures and a disturbing culture of negligence within a popular diving operation.
The parents of Dylan Harrison have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against two major scuba certification agencies following their daughter’s drowning during a class at The Scuba Ranch in Terrell, Texas on August 16, 2025. The suit alleges systemic safety breakdowns led to the tragedy, according to court documents obtained by local media.
Sleep-Deprived Instructor, Broken Promises
At the center of the case is instructor William Armstrong, who reportedly assured Dylan’s parents, “I will not take my eyes off your daughter.” But Armstrong, who worked as a deputy with the Collin County Sheriff’s Office, was severely sleep-deprived during the fatal lesson, having worked a full day shift followed by overnight security work before teaching the morning scuba class. Following the incident, Armstrong resigned from his position with the sheriff’s office.
Eyewitness accounts paint a chaotic picture of Dylan’s final moments. A student named Sickels reported misinterpreting a hand signal that led the group to surface. Dylan was last seen alive at this point, but her body was discovered just seven minutes later at a depth of 12 meters by a diver from another group.
Missing Evidence Raises Questions
Where was the crucial dive data that might explain what happened? Investigators are still searching for answers. Dive computer information from Dylan, Armstrong, and divemaster Jonathan Roussel was either not analyzed or lost entirely — a baffling oversight that has complicated the ongoing criminal investigation by Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office.
“That’s a black box that’ll show you a tremendous amount of information about what happened to Dylan,” one expert noted. “It’s unusual. That so many people who know what to do were present, and things that weren’t done,” they added, highlighting the inexplicable gaps in standard safety protocols.
A Culture of Callousness
Perhaps most disturbing is the emergence of a 2017 video showing Scuba Toys owner Joe Johnson making shockingly cavalier remarks about previous fatalities connected to his business. “All I know is we’ve killed, what, four people, five people and we’ve never even done a deposition. Our insurance company just settles. John Witherspoon said we can kill two people a year, we fine,” Johnson can be heard saying in footage revealed by former NAUI regional director John Banks.
Despite Banks bringing the video to NAUI’s attention, the certification agency deemed it “not actionable” — a decision that now faces fresh scrutiny in light of Dylan’s death.
Has this tragic incident finally forced accountability? The Scuba Toys Carrollton location permanently closed its doors on January 31, 2026, though it remains unclear whether this closure is directly related to the lawsuit or ongoing investigation.
For Dylan’s parents, no closure can bring back their daughter. But their legal action aims to prevent similar tragedies by challenging what they characterize as a dangerous pattern of negligence within recreational diving certification systems that failed to protect their child.
