Safety comes first for SCUBA students in District 218. Teachers never let them forget it.
After months of lessons and training, Shepard and Richards students geared up for their first real dives recently at Haigh Quarry in Kankakee.
They knew what to do, yet teachers Bob Peck and Dylan Shaughnessy walked among them making sure every piece of equipment operated as it should.
Find out what's happening in Oak Lawnwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The reminders on gear checks, safety protocols, and underwater hand signals followed. Since last August students had prepped for their certification dives at Haigh, a popular site for SCUBA diving, and yet they would once again need to hear everything they already knew.
It’s what SCUBA instructors do.
Find out what's happening in Oak Lawnwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Most students earned a basic Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) certificate, which allows them to dive to 33 feet. Students completing their second year of the course, a physical education elective for more than 15 years in District 218, receive an advanced license for dives up to 140 feet.
The basic certification course teaches fundamental knowledge and safety.
The advanced course includes skills such as tying a wide variety of knots, search and recovery diving, wreck diving, environmentalist diving, and other specialized dives.
Students earning their certificates on June 3 included Jakub Domaleczy, Ryan Sprandel, Peter Arnold, Dan Falk, Martin Foertsch, Rafia Giurgiu, Todd Kuenle, Mark Laszczewski , Caylie Lyons, Lazar Mirkovic, Sam Norton, Cooper Stone, Nathan Treat, and Logan Wright.
Students who earned basic certificates on June 10 included Emily Baran, Evelyn Bernsee, Victoria Schlange, Paulina Karkoszka, Isiah Anaya, Katelynn Slehofer, Kimorai Simpson, Liam Duggan, Mariana Barajas, Rachel Snyder, Tony Martinez, Alberto Mayorga.
