Seeking Opinions on Troubling Incident

[vtxkev]

If I was the OW student as I was a month ago I would have waited for this instructor to surface and get out of gear then approached him in a nice manor and asked to speak with him in private. I then would have asked why he did what he did and being new did I do something wrong?

Then depending on his answer I would have shook his hand or gave all you out that who want to call the police a real reason to call the police and rescue squad as I pounded his face into the floor.

 

[Joe-Diver]

Joe-Diver in post #9 said something about contacting his agency.

Yep, and is the main reason for contacting the police. I know they probably wouldn't file charges, but getting that police report of the incident is the key. That will throw alot of weight when it arrives at the offending instructor's agency.

 

[BDSC]

Good point Joe!

 

[mrlipis]

Joe-Diver in post #9 said something about contacting his agency.

You the man Joe!

 

[Stu S.]

Once, there were hard feelings between some dive retailers around Baltimore. I don’t want to call it a “feud”, but most folks knew the competition was not very friendly. Has this situation improved? I hope so.

There is no excuse for rude or violent behavior in diving or elsewhere. However, some situations can bring out the worst in people. If all the store owners and instructors are not on friendly terms, get together and fix it.

 

[SoybeanQueen]

As a student, I'd want to know that an incident report was filed with whichever agency certified that instructor, because someone who loses their ability to be calm underwater that way shouldn't be teaching, IMO. If there was a problem with the student being on the platform, it obviously needed to be handled quite differently.

Were it me that happened to, I'd likely press assault charges, just as I would if someone came up and attempted to harm me on dry land.

 

[W8less]

Yeah, see if you can get the offending instructor's name and agency affiliation from his shop and file an incident report. Hit him in the wallet.

And for anyone who doesn't think that the action was assault, Go downtown, sit at/on a bus stop or park bench wait for someone to sit next to you. Then get up walk over to them and push them off the bench. See how it works out for you.

 

[SoybeanQueen]

Although your post is a bit contentious, I agree for the most part. Especially the part about calling it "assault" and getting the police involved. Pushing someone is very aggresive but not assualt. At least to me its not.

Technically, the pushing would likely be considered battery and not assault, since physical contact was made.

It's not really the point of the thread, but frankly, if someone comes up and shoves me at random (barring a bus bearing down on me, or a shark, or whatever), I'm automatically going to assume that person does intend to harm me, because normal, stable people don't do that.

The event in question is done and can't be undone, but for those who think that no legal trouble could ever come from simply shoving someone, I wouldn't rely on that if one was considering the random platform shove as a training method or something.

 

[webedivin2000]

I cannot wait for the investigation into this underwater assault. The line up at the police station should be quite interesting or maybe we should do it at the quarry involved. Then we have the problem of the type of equipment, color of wet/dry suit, mask color, type of fins, color of dive knife, BCD style, and the list goes on. I hope I can be in the line up.
Come on Diving Professionals, what happen to Professionalism, communication and working together.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

I does not sound like in this situation the shove was justified, but I have witnessed situations were it was.

One that comes to mind was when my kids were doing their 2nd OW cert dive. I was along as an observer / "unofficial DM", and acted as a 2nd set of eyes.

Anyway, during this particular dive a "vacation" diver got mixed in amongst the class, and was a "flailer" (used arms to swim underwater). He was essentially oblivious to his close proximity to the students, hit one in the head with his fin, and with his big sweeping arm strokes was a real risk of hooking a regulator hose on one of the students.

The instructor tried to get between his class and the offending diver, but could not get his attention, and moments later as the diver once again got close to the class the instructor swam up to him, and gently but firmly grabbed the diver, spun him to make eye contact, pointed to the class, and signaled for him to stay well clear.

Now, if a casual observer had only witnessed the instructor grabbing the diver, it would have looked a lot like the situation reported in this thread. But when the whole situation was observed, what the instructor did was reasonable.

After the dive, the instructor did talk to the diver and explain his actions, and the diver was not upset, and did understand.

I'm not saying the situation in this thread was justified (it does not sound like it from what was described), I just wanted to point out that situations can occur that to prevent a dangerous situation may require being physically grabbed, shoved, moved, what have you.

Best wishes.