By Adam Nichols
DNAinfo News Editor
Harlem – Long Island police are considering filing criminal charges against supervisors who allowed a Harlem sixth-grader to swim on an unguarded beach.
Nicole Suriel, 12, drowned after a powerful rip current swept her out to sea at Long Beach on Tuesday.
Police are now investigating if teachers and aides ignored clearly posted warnings not to enter the water.
“We’re looking to see if any of the adults involved in this have any criminal responsibility,” a police source told the New York Post.
“There’s a crime called endangering the welfare of children, and it’s hard to see how this doesn’t fit that description.”
Nicole and another 23 students of Harlem’s Columbia Secondary School were taken to the beach as a reward for raising cash in a walkathon.
They were supervised by three chaperones – teacher Erin Bailey, substitute teacher Joseph Garnevicus and college intern Victoria Wong.
The beach had no lifeguards on duty because the season had not yet begun, and no swimming signs were prominently posted at beach entrances, police told the Post.
But a student told the newspaper that a supervisor allowed kids to go in the water as long as they stayed in a certain area.
It is illegal to enter the water when lifeguards are not on duty.
It took rescuers 90 minutes to find Nicole’s body.
Students gathered to mourn Nicole on the last day of school Friday, while the girl’s family remembered her at a funeral service on Saturday.
One furious parent, who is not related to Nicole, launched a verbal attack on the school's principal, José Maldonado-Rivera, as he left the service, the Post reported.
"Tell the truth. Tell the truth," shouted David Suker, who is co-president of the parents association.
"You are the only one responsible for this tragedy."
