JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An international commercial diving regulator is changing its policies because of three deaths at a now-defunct Jacksonville dive school.
The News4JAX I-TEAM has been investigating CDA Technical Institute since last year after uncovering the student drowning deaths. The I-TEAM learned another student died by suicide and a fifth died of a drug overdose on campus.
MORE: News4JAX Investigations into CDA Technical Institute
Victor Pierce, Isaiah Johnson, and Fausto Martins drowned in a span of eight months. This week, Pierce’s widow has filed suit against the school.
A YouTube video from CDA Technical Institute is years old but still online. In it, the school champions helping students get professionally certified in commercial diving.
“These certifications ensure our graduates have the knowledge and skillsets required to be a commercial diver,” an instructor said in the video. “The accreditation process is your only guarantee that a school teaches to a government standard.”
On top of that list is the Association of Diving Contractors International, a nonprofit covering 41 countries that is focused on safety standards.
“This is something that no school in really recorded commercial diving history in this country has seen before, I mean, the negligence, that and it’s just mind-boggling,” said Phil Newsum, the organization’s executive director.
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Newsum said he found out about two of the deaths secondhand.
“Sadly, through other third parties that had heard about it via media, or in some instances, you know, the parents of the students that are in the industry came and brought it to my attention,” he said. “It certainly did not come from the school itself, except for one incident in which it was self-reported.”
Newsum’s organization called for an emergency audit and when the school’s leaders refused, ADCI pulled their accreditation.
The Department of Veterans Affairs, which sent military veterans to the training on the GI Bill, also cut ties. Shortly after that, the school shut down.
Now the ADCI is changing its international regulations, auditing every school every two years and also requiring them to audit themselves in the years between. Newsum said it had been in the works but the board made the decision with urgency after learning of the CDA deaths.
Newsum said there are 14 recognized commercial diving schools that his organization works with. He said CDA was, by far, the most problematic.
“Well, it’s disappointment, would probably be a gross understatement,” he told News4JAX. “But I want to keep everything above board. But certainly, preventable loss of life is something that, you know, I just, I don’t really have the words. But clearly, this group should never, ever be entrusted, or be given the opportunity to run a commercial diving facility ever again.”
Dean Urenda, the stepfather of Victor Pierce, had the same sentiment.
“I just don’t want these people associated with this school to just go out and start another school or to just go out and get hired on somewhere else, because they are a problem,” Urenda said.
The I-TEAM has been trying to reach the school’s leadership, specifically owner Ray Black, for comment. Calls have not been returned. Now, the numbers linked to the school are disconnected.