Two Bethel Park High School seniors are asking Pennsylvania lawmakers to force the marking of hidden dams across the state, carrying forward a cause that began with the 2022 drowning of their history teacher. Cami Fisher and Nora Welch, both 17, have spent two years building support for House Bill 961, legislation meant to warn kayakers and swimmers away from the low-head dams that killed Jon Gentile, a 38-year-old Bethel Park teacher.
Gentile died in May 2022 after his kayak capsized at an unmarked low-head dam on the Delaware River in Bucks County, according to TribLIVE. He was an experienced kayaker who had mapped his route and followed safety procedures, but the dam gave no warning of the danger lurking beneath the surface, per the same report. lehighvalleylive.com reports Gentile was kayaking with his father in New Hope when he became trapped in water flowing over the structure.
Fisher said students have spent the last two years spreading advocacy and educating their peers about low-head dam dangers, work that began as a school project and grew into a statehouse campaign. Welch said the effort is meant to ensure Gentile's legacy continues, according to the TribLIVE report. The pair worked alongside fellow Bethel Park graduates Samira Gorman, now a Florida State University freshman, and Laura Casaldi, a Pitt freshman.
A Bill Born From a Classroom Loss
Fisher and Welch have been working directly with state Rep. Natalie Mihalek and her legislative aide Claudia Huber, a 2020 Bethel Park graduate who had Gentile as a teacher. Huber was interning in Mihalek's office when Gentile died and later drafted the original House Bill 961 proposal during a fellowship with the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, according to the Observer-Reporter. Gentile's advice reportedly inspired Huber to change career paths and enter public policy.
The bill would amend Title 30 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes concerning the marking of dams, according to the official Pennsylvania General Assembly bill page. It would create a public inventory of run-of-the-river dams, including low-head dams, and require notices sent to dam owners before those structures are eventually marked with signs and buoys, the Observer-Reporter reports. The legislation was referred to the House Game and Fisheries Committee on March 19, 2025, and the assembly's website lists its reported action as amended.
Separately, lehighvalleylive.com reported the committee advanced the bipartisan proposal for consideration by the full House in November, and that it would also require the state Department of Environmental Protection and Fish and Boat Commission to publish a public list and map of dams requiring warnings, and cut the window for repairing damaged warning signs or buoys from 30 days to 15. The official legislative page, however, lists the bill's most recent action as being laid on the table on Nov. 18, 2025. Both accounts are reflected here because the record is not fully reconciled.
Why an Unmarked Dam Can Be So Deadly
A low-head dam is a structure built across a river or stream designed to let water flow over its crest, but that seemingly gentle overflow can create a recirculating current capable of trapping and drowning even strong swimmers, according to the Observer-Reporter and the Association of State Dam Safety Officials. The Observer-Reporter counts 265 low-head dams statewide, while TribLIVE reports Pennsylvania may have thousands, and the danger they pose is often unknown or underreported. TribLIVE also notes that two kayakers became trapped at the same Bucks County dam that killed Gentile less than a year after his death.
The scale of the problem extends well beyond one river. More than 100 deaths have occurred at three dozen dams across Pennsylvania, and more than 600 nationwide are attributed to low-head dams, according to a Brigham Young University study cited by USA Today. Harrisburg's Dock Street Dam on the Susquehanna River has become one of the state's grimmest examples: the dam safety association's case study documented 30 deaths and 30 near-fatalities there between 1935 and 2018, while lehighvalleylive.com separately reported the structure has claimed at least 31 lives since it was built in 1913. A federal judge dismissed federal claims in a lawsuit brought by the family of a man killed there, though state claims were dismissed without prejudice and can be refiled in county court, according to PennLive.
Keeping a Teacher's Memory in the Classroom
Beyond lobbying in Harrisburg, Bethel Park students have built water-safety education into their own school community. TribLIVE reports the students teach kayaking and water safety lessons at a Bethel Park elementary school and developed a waterway-safety pamphlet for the district's annual physical-education kayak trip, according to the Observer-Reporter. They also raise money for the Big Heart Scholarship, established in Gentile's memory to honor students who display exceptional character, kindness and compassion.
Mihalek said the students took an interest in the issue and pursued it themselves, adding that young people involved in the legislative process can experience democracy hands-on, per TribLIVE's reporting. Pennsylvania has more than 86,000 miles of rivers and streams, according to CBS News Pittsburgh, meaning many smaller or lesser-known waterways remain unmarked even as the push for HB 961 continues.
