DOE Punishes Three Harlem School Officials Following Beach Drowning Report

Lindsey Christ NY1 07/14/2010 17:44

The city's Special Commissioner of Investigation Wednesday released its report on the drowning of a student during a class trip to a Long Island beach, and the Department of Education has fired the Harlem teacher who organized the outing.

Nicole Suriel, 12, was out in the water with about two dozen classmates from the Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science and Engineering during a class trip to a Long Island beach on June 22, when she got caught in the waves. The beach was technically closed and no lifeguards were present.

As a result, DOE officials are firing the girl's teacher, Erin Bailey.

The DOE has demoted Columbia Secondary School's Assistant Principal Andrew Stillman to being a tenured teacher in the public school system and Principal Jose Maldonado-Rivera is being put on probation for two years.

The report said there was a lack of planning by the assistant principal, who had organized the trip, and the principal.

It also said Bailey showed a lack of supervision and that school administrators failed to provide enough chaperones. The other two chaperones were a college student, who was interning, and Bailey's boyfriend, who is a substitute teacher who did not know how to swim.

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