Bethel Park students advocating for dam safety legislation in honor of late teacher
Bethel Park High School students are campaigning for Pennsylvania's House Bill 961 in memory of their former history teacher Jon Gentile, an experienced kayaker who died in 2022 at age 38 after capsizing at an unmarked low head dam on the Delaware River. The bill, supported by state Rep. Natalie Mihalek and her aide Claudia Huber (Gentile's niece, who drafted the original proposal), would require notifying owners of run-of-the-river dams, set standards for warning markings, and create a public record of where these dams are and who owns them. Beyond urging a floor vote, the students teach water safety to elementary schoolers and raise money for the Big Heart Scholarship in Gentile's name.
