Visibility conditions in that area can be anything from OK to horrible. This year with global warming we've had a poor year for visibility. This is a silty area. Classes kneel on the bottom for skills demonstration and generally have miserable buoyancy control and finning techniques. They simply trash the visibility and with almost no current, one of the things that makes this a good learning site, the visibility stays messed up for a long time.
I certified in the same spot. After our mask clearing skill the plan was for the instructor to lead the group off for our first 'real' dive, where we went around and looked at stuff. My buddy and I happened to be at the end of the line. By the time the whole class took off all we could see was mud. We lost the entire class of 10 people in seconds. From the other end the instructor lost us. Leading a line of 10 people even without the silt out it's unlikely an instructor could see the students at the end of the line at any time.
In our area, a lot of the time it can be a challenge for buddy pairs that are actually decent divers to stay together if they do anything but go around concentrating on contact, which is pretty much boring. Stop to take a picture, look at something, not notice that your buddy has done this, and you are separated.