School officials are investigating the circumstances that led to the drowning of a 12-year-old Harlem girl on a school trip to a Long Island beach.

The office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation is looking into Nicole Suriel's death.

The sixth grader was on a school trip to Long Beach with about two-dozen classmates from the Columbia Secondary School when she got caught in a riptide – setting off a massive search.

Her body was found more than an hour later, and she could not be revived.

"She was one of the sweetest girls ever. She cared about everybody, and she was always there,” said a friend of the victim.

Signs posted at the beach warned that there were no lifeguards on duty at the time. Her family and friends are questioning why the children were allowed to swim without a lifeguard present.

"At first I didn't believe it,” said Suriel’s cousin, Orelbi Suriel. “I ran downstairs, I saw my grandma crying. I saw my aunt on the floor crying. I didn't know what to do. Then I heard it was true."

"We have so many questions, millions, but we don't have answers,” said the girl’s uncle, Basilio Suriel.

Department of Education officials say a crisis team was sent to the girl's school after the incident and a makeshift memorial was erected outside the building.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein released a statement saying, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the Suriel family and the entire school community at this sad and tragic time."

"What we're focusing on now is the support that this school needs," said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew. "Our deepest condolences to the family."

"We're in suffering, we're in pain. This is not the time to blame anybody. This is a time to heal," said parent Victor Acosta.

According to the schools chancellor's office, schools must specifically ask parents' permission for their children to engage in any risky activities, including swimming, during school trips.

The DOE says that this trip did have the necessary amount of supervisors on the trip, three adults for every 30 students. However, with trips that involve swimming, the school's principal, José Gabriel Maldonado-Rivera, was supposed to approve the trip and determine whether more supervision is needed.

The teacher on the trip, eighth grade English teacher Erin Bailey, was not in school Wednesday.

DOE officials would not comment on whether all the students on this trip had signed permission slips with this special request. They also referred the case to an independent investigator.

"They went to a beach without lifeguards and let kids go into the water. Who's responsible for that? Did the principal know?" said parent David Suker, who is a teacher in the system but was accused of wrongdoing and removed from the classroom. "You don't get 24 kids on the Long Island Rail Road if the principal does not know where they're going."

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer called for a suspension of all school field trips until regulations could be reviewed, but Klein said school trips will continue this week.

Between 2003 and 2005, no swimming was allowed on school trips.

The last drowning in the school district was in the 1990s.