Richards, Shepard, Eisenhower students earn SCUBA certification

Safety comes first for SCUBA students in District 218. Teachers never let them forget it.

After months of lessons and training, Shepard, Richards, and Eisenhower students geared up for their first real dives recenlty at Haigh Quarry in Kankakee.

They knew what to do, yet teachers Bob Peck, Jason Perch and Dylan Shaughnessy walked among them making sure every piece of equipment operated as it should.

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.

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 from Richards who earned basic certificates included Catlyn Comiskey, Haley Thompson, Julian Gutierrez, Krystian Para, Maggie Fitzgerald, Mariah Santiago, Miranda Reis, Nolan Gimza, Pablo Rodriguez, Sarah Carpenter, Seth Stone, Martin Pacheco, and Adam Maugeri.

Shepard students earning certificates included Daniel Boudreau, Christian Dziadkowiec, Benjamin Hartl, Graciella Ramirez, Celestia Martinez, Emma Reilly, Krzysztof Szwajnos, and Alison Zemeckis. Shepard students earning advanced certificates included Alison Zemeckis and Francesca Serdar.

Eisenhower students earning certificates included Carlos Saenz, Diego Castaneda, Gissel Ibarra. Juan Ochoa, Mateo Castillo and Temiloluwa Okunola.