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Extreme Heat Sickens Students During PE Laps

BAY HARBOR ISLANDS (CBS4) – South Florida's extreme heat sickened more than half a dozen students Thursday and sent one student to the hospital.

According to Miami-Dade School District spokesman John Schuster, eight students from Ruth K. Broad Bay Harbor K-8 Center complained of heat exhaustion after running laps during P.E.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crews were called to the school. They transported one student to Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital. The student's condition is unknown. The other seven students were treated at the school.

Student Skylar Setlin said she too was a little over heated but did not need medical attention.

"In PE we had to do a mile run, which is eight laps around a track, and we have partners to hold the water but I never gave my partner the water to give to me so I didn't drink any water during that," she said. "But we could run or walk and I chose to walk."

Setlin's mother was called to pick her up.

"There's a lot of kids that went home, but luckily she's OK," Kelly Setlin said. "I think they just all got over heated."

Leonard Coker, who went to check on his grandson at the school, said, "I doesn't think the students should be out in 90 degree weather."

Temperatures Thursday hovered around 89 degrees but the heat index, or how hot it felts, was in the upper 90s and higher due to our extremely high humidity.

While many parents said they felt the school handled it professionally, some questions whether the students should have been outside in the heat, CBS4's Gwen Belton reported.

John Schuster, chief communications officer with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, issued a statement regarding the "heat-related symptoms."

"Physical education teachers are trained to use discretion during times of extreme heat and humidity, which is often a challenge in South Florida," the statement read. "We encourage and promote proper hydration to help students stay cool."

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