A funeral was held Saturday at Harlem's Church of the Annunciation for a sixth-grade girl who drowned earlier in the week during a class trip to Long Beach.

Friends and family said they were proud to have known and loved 12-year-old Nicole Suriel.

"She was beautiful, she is intelligent. I loved her, I loved -- I'm sorry," said one mourner.

"You could never find her sad, she always tried to make people happy. Very encouraging person," said another.

"It's just a very tragic event, very tragic event. I'm so sorry for that family," said a third.

Three chaperones -- a teacher, a substitute teacher and a college intern -- took 24 kids from Columbia Secondary School on the ill-fated trip Tuesday. Sources told NY1 that no lifeguards were on duty at the beach.

Friends said Nicole could not swim and was dragged out to sea by a powerful riptide.

A concerned father, David Suker, demanded answers from the school's principal outside the funeral home.

"I want to know where the permission slips are and why parents were not told that their children would be swimming on this trip," said Suker.

"You can't blame anybody, but if you think kids go to beach and not swim, you're not thinking hard enough," said Angela Otuyo, Nicole's friend.

Last night, classmates and their families gathered in Manhattan's Morningside Park for a candlelight vigil.

"Nicole was a genuinely beautiful girl, and that's not just something to say because she passed. I mean, inside is all her of friends from both of her schools that she went to -- P.S. 161 and Columbia Secondary. And my heart really goes out to her family," said third-grade teacher Rabin Nickens.

A wake was also held earlier Friday in Washington Heights, Manhattan. Mourners streamed in for hours to pay their last respects.

The Department of Education is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the trip and the actions of the adult supervisors.