DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
HARLEM — A first-year teacher was reportedly fired Wednesday after a city probe revealed that she let students who couldn't swim into the water during a beach field trip last month that ended in the drowning of 12-year-old Nicole Suriel.
Erin Bailey, a 26-year-old teacher at Columbia Secondary School who told her students, "If you can't swim, don't go in the water past your waist," was fired Wednesday, according to the Wall Street Journal. The school's assistant principal, Andrew Stillman, was demoted and its principal, Jose Maldonado-Rivera, was reprimanded.
"We will be reviewing the regulations on field trips and will be making appropriate changes in light of this tragedy," schools spokeswoman Natalie Ravitz said, the paper reported.
The report on the city's investigation, headed up by Special Commissioner for the Department of Education Richard Condon, said the rookie eight-grade English teacher displayed "poor conduct" during the June 22 field trip. The report also faulted the school for failing to properly plan for the outing and for the lack of adult supervision.
The school's principal, Maldonado-Rivera, sent an e-mail to parents only the day before the trip saying students should come to school the next day "dressed to swim and play in the sun."
Assistant Principal Andrew Stillman, who has reportedly since been demoted to tenured teacher, was supposed to be on the trip to help supervise, but did not attend because he felt too overwhelmed with work, the report said.
That left Bailey a one of only three adults supervising the 24 students on June 22. The others were her 28-year-old boyfriend Joseph Garnevicus, who couldn't swim, and 19-year-old teaching intern Victoria Wong.
Wong saved at least four students, while an unidentified beachgoer saved one other. Bailey saved one child before she needed rescuing from the Coast Guard, who also said they pulled out another child.
But nobody could get to Nicole, whose body was discovered in the water an hour later.
The report also said that the school did not provide permission slips to parents for the trip. Instead, parents were given two "universal" permission slips at the beginning of the year that had them signing off on out-of-school trips and their children using the swimming pool at the school.
Several students interviewed in the report remembered Bailey telling them on that fatal day to stay in the shallow water. Some even remembered seeing the "No Lifeguard" signs that beach officials say were posted at every entrance to the beach that day. Bailey did not participate in the investigation and has a UFT lawyer representing her.
Oliver Storch, an attorney for the Suriel family, called the report "very thorough," and noted that it showed a series of failures in planning and supervision of the trip.
"This was a tragedy from the inception," Storch said. The report "speaks volumes. It's quite definitive on where the blame lies."
Storch said he is discussing the report with the Suriel family, but he would not comment on whether they would be filing a lawsuit.
"They are still destroyed and in terrible pain," he said.
The report was copied to Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice "for whatever action she deems appropriate."
A spokeswoman for Rice said the DA "is engaged in a thorough review of the facts and circumstances concerning the tragic death of 12 year old Nicole Suriel."
