To me that seems like an odd thing to do. If panicked I don't think pulling a mask off would be something I wouldn't do. It wouldn't seem like something that would make sense, it would serve no purpose. Not saying it isn't something that happens it just seems like an odd thing to do.
Thought to be a reaction akin to claustrophobia.
I think that you just got it into words.
Our children are programmed to succeed so they behave that way. There is always that hand that reaches down at the last minute. It just doesn't work like that in diving.
Diving is fun, easy, and potentially dangerous. The first two parts are well addressed by the agencies. I had the advantage of an instructor who came to see that my son was "invincible". His response was to stick his finger in my face (literally) and tell me that my job is to always be the better diver. The message was clear, we are heading back north and there is nothing more he can do for us. Sobering thought, never left me.
There is no easy answer and the first step to problem solving is not to assign blame but to improve what is in place.
Rather hard to fix a problem without a determination of what the problem is ... that involves, like it or not, blame.
The following are, at best, tangential (some speculative) discussion points, but I think I'll share them anyway...
Do instructional agencies give instructors enough latitude to deny certification to an OW student based on the student's attitude/maturity level alone? FWIW, I'm not just talking about younger dive students. It could be a middle-aged or older student as well.
No they do not.
We hear about "standards"-based curricula and the word "mastery" bandied about with certain scuba instructional agencies. We also have instructors who admit that just because they wouldn't complete the task/skill in a certain way, so long as the student fulfills the "standard" (the agency's definition of "mastery"/proficiency is attained), the task is considered completed.
True and a shame.
Do "standards" ever address the mental attitude of a student? The reason I ask specifically about this is that an instructor would not be empowered to withhold/deny certification to a student for this reason if the standards never addressed it. Furthermore, it would be at the discretion of the instructor to even mention approaching the sport with the "right mental attitude" (conservative gas management, conservative dive planning, being a good buddy, not diving in too challenging conditions, making it a habit to practice OW skills on a consistent basis, thinking through emergency situations, being assertive enough to do the right thing despite authority figures instructing otherwise, etc.) in the course of the class.
NAUI does in the concept of would I allow this person to teach my loved ones to dive (and by extension I would allow my loved ones to dive with this person).
I realize that Junior Open Water Diver programs exist, and AFAIK the certification for a diver ages 12-14 requires that a certified adult accompany him/her on all dives. In this sense, "to accompany" means to buddy up with (I think). Why is this restriction placed on Junior Open Water divers? If the reason for having adult supervision is to compensate for a potential lack of maturity...why draw the line at age 15? Is there something special about the maturity level of 15-year-olds? Is it because 15-year-olds can get driver's permits? Are 15-year-olds thought to possess enough maturity to handle the responsibilities of an OW diving situation?
I don't think age, per se, is the issue. I made my first dive at six and by 15 was an "old salt."
I think back to when I was in high school. I participated in varsity-level sports and played a leadership role on all of the teams with which I played. I took challenging academic classes. I was active in student government. I was responsible by all accounts, from the perspective of any third party. From the ages 15-17, was I mature enough to handle the responsibilities of OW diving? I don't think so. Realistic assessment of my own limits wasn't in my vocabulary at that time.
Proof is in the pudding ... I guess that I was.
In this incident, we have two teenagers (ages 16 and 17) who somehow got in over their heads. We also know that they were both on the football team (JV?). I'm thinking back to when I played high school sports and what my attitude toward scuba diving might have been. Participation in team sports really drives home the notion of taking care of other players on your team. I think these guys knew what it meant to be dive buddies and they took that responsibility seriously. Unfortunately, I get the sneaking suspicion that that healthy I've-got-my-brother's-back and we-can-do-this-if-we-just-stick-together attitude may have led to the double fatality.
The problem (would appear to be) I've-got-my-brother's-back and we-can-do-this-if-we-just-stick-together ... but ... somehow no one provided me with the skill(s) to get it done.
It's a difficult thing to do, but if you try to place yourself in the shoes of the second diver who was perhaps responding to the OOA diver, what would be going through your mind as the incident unfolded? I can imagine the OOA diver was frantically searching for an alternative air source. I can imagine that a physical altercation of some sort ensued, based mainly on the information that one diver was found maskless. I can also imagine that the panicked OOA diver probably escalated the situation to a level of violence that the second diver was not prepared for. After all, we are talking about a couple of football players here.
Rather an easy situation for two divers who have been trained to deal with it, the situation (OOA?) should not have occurred and if it did should have been easy to deal with.
Until I took a Rescue class, I did not think much about how violent a panicked diver could get. I think experienced instructors/DMs/AIs/boat crews have a healthy appreciation for this.
There should not have been a panicked diver, and even so panicked divers are not really that hard to deal with ... they just want to go up.
If more comprehensive rescue procedures had been part of the basic OW class, would this accident have happened?
Gas management and air monitoring might have been more useful. After that air sharing drills, last but not least ... rescue.
If each teenager had been buddied up with a certified responsible adult with rescue training, could something like this have happened?
I don't think that the training received or retained by adults is any better.
To be clear, I'm not placing the blame for this tragedy on any instructional agency, instructor, dive op, parent, or even on the teenagers themselves.
Not clear whom to point the finger at ... yet.
Kids neither know nor expect failure. The majority probably have never felt fear or panic - like when we got into trouble at school and knew we were going home for a whoopin :depressed: I must admit that I am happy to say that my 13 year old son experienced panic. 
