Drowning victim's family gets settlement

A year after sixth-grader Nicole Suriel drowned off Long Beach on a school trip, the city of New York has reached a $1.6-million settlement with her family, a spokeswoman for the city's law department said Friday.

Nicole, 12, drowned last June during an end-of-the-year beach trip with about two dozen fellow students from the Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science & Engineering in Manhattan.

"Given the circumstances, we felt that settlement was in everyone's best interests," city spokeswoman Kate Ahlers said in a statement. "Nicole's death is very tragic, and we again offer our condolences to her family."

Nicole, of Harlem, did not know how to swim, and her drowning came before the start of seasonal weekday lifeguard staffing at the beach.

The settlement, which must be approved by the Surrogate's Court, according to the city's law department, comes in the same week the city Department of Education tightened its guidelines for school trips.

The guidelines require principals to ensure that lifeguards always be on duty when students are swimming and that all students in water activities wear life jackets.

Oliver Storch, attorney for the Suriel family, said the city "did the right thing."

The city took steps to get this "resolved quickly," he said. "The settlement shows the empathy the city had in this case by not prolonging the family's suffering."

Storch also said the family has plans to create a scholarship in Nicole's name.