The family of Dylan Harrison, the 12-year-old Texas girl who died on a junior scuba-diving course last year, has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against training agencies NAUI and PADI as well as dive businesses and individual professionals involved in the fatal incident.
The 40-page document alleges that failures in training standards, supervision and safety oversight contributed to Dylan’s death while she was undertaking an entry-level course at the Scuba Ranch lake near Terrell on 16 August, 2025.
Lawyers for the family allege that depositions in the suit demonstrate systemic shortcomings in the scuba training of minors. Certification agencies take the position that their courses follow rigorous protocols and that day-to-day safety decisions rest with local instructors and dive-centres.
Dylan’s instructor William Armstrong is alleged to have been sleep-deprived, having worked for some 24 hours before the incident in his day job as a deputy sheriff, from which he has since resigned, as well as on a night-shift as a watchman. Divemaster Jonathan Roussel, who was said to have promised not to take his eyes off Dylan, had later claimed to have lost his own dive-computer when asked to produce it.
According to Fox News, which led the way in investigating the fatality, the lawsuit alleges that Dylan had been buddied with another 12-year-old trainee but that Armstrong had failed to carry out a check on her weights.
Emergency services had not been called until 15 minutes after the girl was last seen and, based on the last surface reading of air in her tank and that remaining after the incident, she could have survived for some minutes, alone in poor visibility but not knowing how to reach the surface.
Critical evidence
Questions were later raised about the handling of evidence, including dive-computer data from participants failing to be collected or analysed. Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office had reportedly informed the family that the investigation had already been closed within hours of the incident, before critical evidence could have been fully examined.
An historic video of dive-centre owner Joe Johnson making “flippant” remarks about student deaths had come to light following the fatality. The long-established centre, ScubaToys, closed permanently last week (31 January).
Both NAUI and PADI appear to have been named in the lawsuit because of the allegations of systemic failures across the youth diving industry. Other named parties include ScubaToys Enterprises and its owner Johnson, the Scuba Ranch, Armstrong, Roussel and another dive-centre staff-member, Gregory Knauer.
Critics of the diver training system for minors have in the past argued that accountability can be blurred if and when incidents occur, with agencies, instructors and operators each bearing partial responsibility. Supporters say that youth diving courses are safe as long as standards are followed and that fatal incidents involving children are rare. A preliminary hearing date has yet to be set.
