A scuba school told its instructors they were allowed to kill two students a year, according to a lawsuit filed by heartbroken parents whose daughter died while taking lessons there.
The astonishing claim comes after 12-year-old Dylan Harrison tragically drowned on August 16, 2025, while attending a class at The Scuba Ranch in Terrell, Texas, about 40 minutes outside of Dallas.
Harrison, who was also known as ‘Dillie Picklez’ by her loved ones, was eager to get her National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) Open Water diving certification so she could join her family members in the underwater activity.
But sadly, her dreams never came true after she vanished during her training class that summer day. She was found dead about 45ft underwater, approximately 35ft away from the platform.
Now, a new lawsuit filed on January 30 by Harrison’s mother and father, Heather and Mitchell, detailed the disturbing guidelines the scuba school owner told his employees before being entrusted with students in the water.
Joseph Johnson, the owner of Scubatoys, a dive and certification shop that the family was using for Harrison, was ‘seen bragging to a roomful of Scubatoys Instructors’ that two students were allowed to die each year and the business would ‘still be fine,’ the documents allege.
The unearthed footage, filmed in 2017 by an employee, captured a worker telling Johnson not to take lawsuits lightly.
Stunningly, Johnson appeared to have very little compassion over the statement, shrugging and telling his workers: ‘All I know is we’ve killed what, four people, five people, and we’ve never even done a deposition.
Hellbound and Down 