CULEBRA, Puerto Rico (AP) — When temperatures soar at a public school on the small Puerto Rican island of Culebra, students scatter in search of relief.
During a summer program last month, as outdoor temperatures climbed into the upper 80s, Zedrik, a rising third grader, sat in the schoolyard beside a bush not tall enough to shade him entirely from the sun. Kenneth, a ninth grader, took refuge in the library. Nayla, an eighth grader, went to the director's office, where an air conditioner offered limited relief.
The school has ceiling fans, but they don’t operate at full strength. Other cooling equipment in the school doesn't work because it's been damaged by fluctuations in electrical voltage on an island dealing with an energy crisis.
Students and teachers often suffer heat-relate