FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Students at Sunrise Middle School were dismissed early on Monday after the school had an air conditioning malfunction.
Broward County said the air conditioner problems stem from a pressurized problem with a water pipe. There was not enough water getting to the air conditioning system.
Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue responded to the school around 11 a.m.
Parents rushed to the school to pick up their kids, just hours after dropping them off.
“I got a phone call, it was like ‘Mom, you have to come pick us up because the school is shut down and the air conditioner is not working so school is going to be out for the rest of the day. So I had to tell my boss I had to leave work in the middle of surgery and was like ‘I have to go pick up my son,'” said Mrs. Morris. “It’s an inconvenience because I’m not supposed to leave work but it’s an emergency.”
“I just got a call from my son to pick him up. He told me the A/C were down,” said Sara Mcrackenrahamen.
Students said the broken A/C led to a sweltering day for them.
“The school was about 95 degrees in the cafeteria and there was no A/C and they said they were going to turn it on at 9:45 but it never turned on,” said student Caden Mcrackenrahamen.
Others said the school was already hot when the first school bell rang.
“We walked in the school and the A/C was out and it was sweating and the lights were off and everything,” said student Jovi Weindorfer.
“All the heat was all in classrooms and everything,” said student Jakarei Walters.
“It was sweaty and musty in there,” said Maxine Frenicien.
“When we got here this morning, there was no A/C. So pretty much we just walked in there and it started heating up even more and more cause of the heat from the sun and pretty much it got as bad that I think someone got a heat stroke and it got taken away,” said Kenneth Morris.
The district said a 12-year-old was evaluated for breathing trouble but is OK.
Two other students were transported to a local hospital in an abundance of caution but are also doing OK.
School officials decided the heat was too much and sent the students home.
“They said at the cafeteria that it was going to be early release at 12,” said Caden.
“They announced that all the students can call their parents and like what we all did is it was so hot, that the teacher let us go outside and just chill for a minute,” said Jeremiah.
Broward officials said students will return to school on Tuesday.
“The Sunrise Middle A/C issue has been fixed but it takes a while for the building to actually cool down when it gets that hot so we sent them home out of an abundance of caution so when they come back tomorrow morning, the building will be nice and cool and ready to go for instruction,” said Broward Schools Superintendent Dr. Howard Hepburn.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.