Background: The Scuba Ranch training lake in Terrell, Texas (KDFW/YouTube). Inset: Dylan Harrison (lawsuit).
The parents of a 12-year-old girl who drowned at a scuba training facility in north Texas are suing the organizations and people who were tasked with keeping her safe, alleging their negligence caused her death.
The 41-page wrongful death lawsuit takes aim at several aspects of the scuba operation, which Dylan Harrison was participating in when she died. As the filing puts it, not only were the employees supervising the training and their overseeing agencies negligent in their duties, but there existed a culture of being "fine" if someone were to die on their watch.
The story began on July 12, 2025, when Dylan's parents bought her an entry-level "Open Water Private Class" and scuba gear at a business called Scubatoys in Carrollton, Texas, according to the suit. The purpose was for her to obtain a National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) Open Water diving certification so she could scuba dive with her family.
The lawsuit notes that Dylan was "small in stature," weighing less than 78 pounds and standing 4 feet, 10 inches tall, but they "relied on NAUI and Scubatoys' representations that a 12-year old girl, like D.H., could complete the course safely." Roughly a month later, Dylan and her parents arrived at Scubatoys to begin her training with a "NAUI-certified Instructor," and at the end of the session, they were told to go to The Scuba Ranch in Terrell, Texas, "to continue D.H.'s instruction in a lake."
The lawsuit maintains that the instructions given to Dylan were insufficient and that she was not provided with the appropriate equipment students need "to ensure their own safety if they are separated from an instructor underwater."
On Aug. 16, 2025, Dylan began her training at the Scuba Ranch, a Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) facility. PADI, like NAUI, provides certifications in the world of scuba diving and develops standards to be followed for safety.
Those standards were not properly overseen or followed, the lawsuit contends. To start, there were "poor visibility and water conditions" at the lake being used.
The girl was placed in a group of seven other students "of mixed age and experience levels," and although the parents protested, saying they had "paid for private instruction" because of Dylan's age and inexperience, they were told she would be safe because she would be with a "NAUI-certified Divemaster," Jonathan Roussel.
"I will not take my eyes off your daughter," he told them, according to the lawsuit, which refers to Dylan by her initials "D.H."
The training began, and in addition to a divemaster accompanying the students, there was also a "NAUI-certified instructor," William Armstrong, the filing goes on. "At the time, Armstrong was an off-duty Assistant Chief Deputy for the Collin County, Texas Sheriff's Department," it states. But he reportedly also had another job, even in addition to the scuba gig.
"When they were preparing for D.H. to participate in the open water training class at The Scuba Ranch, Plaintiffs and D.H. were unaware that Armstrong had worked a full day shift as Collin County Sheriff's Deputy on Friday, August 15, 2025, before working a full overnight shift as a security guard at another facility, he had left this second shift at 6:00 a.m. to drive approximately an hour to The Scuba Ranch, and he was about to begin a full day of scuba instruction having had little or no sleep in the past 24 hours," the lawsuit claims.
During the opening training dives, Dylan was paired with another 12-year-old kid, and she "was not properly weighted" nor properly checked to make sure she was "neutrally buoyant on the surface," her parents claim. At about 10:12 a.m., after Roussel and Armstrong checked each student to see how much air was in their scuba tanks — Dylan's was 80% full — the students submerged themselves again into the water.
Her parents state that "[t]his was the last time anyone saw D.H. alive."
Dylan "became separated" from everyone else — a fact "not immediately recognized," the suit goes on. After "multiple minutes" and the two adults realizing they had seven students with them and not eight, Roussel brought the other students to shore and Armstrong searched for the missing child.
Someone called emergency services, and "additional divers and personnel at the Scuba Ranch" helped search. However, "Armstrong and Roussel were seen leaving the area and, when they returned, they were reportedly unhelpful in guiding the search for D.H. Consequently, the initial search was disorganized and inefficient, wasting valuable time."
"Once a proper search was initiated, D.H. was found within approximately 7 minutes — approximately 30 minutes after she was last seen alive," the lawsuit continues. "D.H. was unresponsive on the bottom, her nose was bleeding, the regulator was out of her mouth, and her mask and at least one of her fins were off and located some distance away from her body."
The Harrison parents maintain that their daughter's air tank was 55 percent full, meaning "it can be surmised that D.H. was alive and breathing off her tank for several minutes" after she was last seen. "During this time, D.H. was alone, in poor visibility, and unable to reach the surface."
Emergency personnel tried to save Dylan after taking her body from the water, but she was pronounced dead.
As the investigation began into what exactly went wrong, the parents say "witnesses came forward with additional information about the callousness and disregard for safety" exhibited by the defendants. One such piece of information was a video obtained by area Fox affiliate KDFW in which Joseph Johnson, the owner of Scubatoys in 2017, could be seen "bragging to a roomful of Scubatoys Instructors about the number of students Scubatoys had killed without any consequences, and how Scubatoys' insurance broker had assured Johnson he and Scubatoys could kill two students each year and still be 'fine.'"
"All I know is we've killed, what, 4 people, 5 people, and we've never even done a deposition," the man in the video says. "Our insurance company just settles."
And according to the lawsuit, the other man seen in the video is "Rick Golden, the NAUI regional representative charged with supervising Scubatoys and its compliance with NAUI Standards and Procedures." The parents add: "Golden does not express any shock or surprise at Johnson's callous disregard for safety or the value of human life, indicating that he was aware of Scubatoys 'kill count' and he was also fine with it."
Scubatoys closed its Carrollton business on Jan. 31, according to KDFW, which added that NAUI and PADI did not respond to requests for comment. The Scuba Ranch told the station that it was praying that the family receives the answers and closure it deserves.