A 12-year-old girl from Harlem drowned while on a school trip to Long Beach, a city official said.
The young girl was pulled from the water almost an hour and a half after she was reported missing, Long Beach City Manager Charles Theofan said. She was taken to Long Beach Medical Center but paramedics were unable to revive her. 
The girl was a on a trip with 24 students and 3 teachers from Columbia Secondary School on West 123rd Street.
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There were no lifeguards on duty at the time, but the beach’s signs warned swimmers to stay out of the water, Theofan said. Fulltime lifeguard supervision at Long Beach does not begin until June 26.
In an interview with the Press about drownings on the South Shore, George Gorman, Jr., deputy regional director of New York State Parks, Recreation and Historical Preservation, stressed the importance of surf supervision for swimmers’ safety. “Don’t go in the water, or swim where lifeguards are not on duty,” he said. “Lifeguards make sure that nothing will happen to you.”
This drowning marks the fourth—possibly fifth (Xiangyong Chen, 31, is still missing from Cupsogue Beach County Park in Westhampton)—of the summer.
[...] Long Island Press says five people have already drowned this summer on a beach with “no swimming” signs [...]
I was there swimming and was able to get Divine. The teachers never told us about the signs. That i remember.
In my day field trips were always reserved for educational purposes, not an opportunity to drown.
I feel kind of embarrassed to say that I attend CSS because I don’t understand why they would let them swim while no lifeguards were there and there were signs saying no swimming. Honestly my heart goes out to her family because I can’t imagine what my family would be going through right now if that would have been me
Who approves a school trip to the beach when lifeguards are not on duty yet?