By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — A public school teacher who organized a field trip to a Long Island beach where a 12-year-old Harlem girl drowned will not face criminal charges, according to published reports.
The Nassau County District Attorney's office determined there was no criminal conduct by former city teacher Erin Bailey, who was accused of letting Nicole Suriel and other students wade in the surf at Long Beach despite the absence of a lifeguard, the New York Times reported.
Suriel, 12, who was a student at Harlem's Columbia Secondary School, drowned after getting caught in a rough current on June 22.
It was later revealed that some of the students, including Suriel, had not submitted parental permission slips for the trip.
"The decision to visit the beach and allow the students to enter the ocean may not have been wise, but the evidence does not establish that it was a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a reasonable person would have observed," Kathleen Rice, Nassau County's prosecutor, said in a statement to the paper.
“While the ultimate collective failure to prevent Nicole Suriel’s death is particularly tragic, the evidence does not support a finding of criminality on the part of any of those involved,” she said.
Bailey, who was 26 at the time of the incident, was fired, and the school's principal was put on probation.
