By Jill Colvin and Heather Grossmann
DNAinfo Staff
MANHATTAN — A 12-year-old Harlem girl was caught in a riptide and drowned at Long Beach on Tuesday on a school trip during which the children swam without lifeguard supervision, authorities said.
Emergency services workers in Nassau County, L.I. responded to a call saying three swimmers were distressed in the water about 12:30 p.m. said the Coast Guard. Two of the swimmers were immediately rescued, but the third could not be located.
After an extensive search that lasted about 1 1/2 hours, the body of sixth-grader Nicole Suriel was recovered in waist-deep water, the Coast Guard and parents said.
There were no lifeguards on duty at the time of the incident — they are scheduled to begin patrolling the beaches daily next week. The New York Times reported that there were signs at every entrance warning not to swim.
Only three adults were supervising the 24 kids on the field trip, according to the New York Post.
“I don’t know why the school is going there,” the girl's 43-year-old father Juan Suriel told the Times.
Suriel, who runs a cleaning service in Harlem, told the paper that he and his daughter had immigrated from the Dominican Republic.
“I feel very bad right now,” he said.
Suriel was a student at Columbia Secondary School in Harlem, a new school on 123rd Street between Amsterdam and Morningside avenues created for talented students in math, engineering and the sciences.
Angry parents and children in tears were seen leaving the school late Tuesday afternoon.
A woman whose son is the year above Suriel at school said her son was very close to the girl.
"He's horrible. He's heartbroken. He's devastated," she said.
The mother was also very angry about the fact that the children were swimming without lifeguards.
"Clearly it's a safety concern," she said. "I think if the school takes students to a beach and there are clear signs saying not to go in the water, don't go in the water."
She was shocked when she was told how many teachers and parents were supervising the trip.
"Wow," she repeated, shaking her head and saying that was not sufficient.
"We want to know what's going to be going forward trip-wise," she said.
The principal of Ralph Bunche School, which shares a building with Columbia Secondary School, issued a letter to students and parents Tuesday about the tragedy.
"During a field trip to Long Island beach today, one of the 6th grade students got caught in a riptide and drowned. Information is still scanty," the letter reads.
The letter also asks parents to speak with their children and "refrain from speaking to the media." It informed parents that a bereavement team would be arriving soon.
In a statement made at a news conference Tuesday hall, Bloomberg said that people should not rush to assign blame.
"I think at this point what we have to focus on is maybe grieving and having a prayer for the child and see if we can help the parents through what is obviously the most difficult situation any parent could possibly experience," Bloomberg said, according to the New York Times.
