Puerto Rico's schools are unequipped to cope with ever hotter heat waves
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-related illnesses at schools in Puerto Rico, one of many places where extreme heat is disrupting children's education more frequently. Puerto Rico has developed guidelines for moving students to places with ventilation and air conditioning during extreme heat, but in practice, students often have limited options. The U.S. territory in the Caribbean has made slow progress rebuilding school infrastructure damaged by Hurricane Maria in 2017 and earthquakes in 2020.
___
Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico is collaborating with The Associated Press, Honolulu Civil Beat, CalMatters, and Blue Ridge Public Radio to examine how school communities are recovering from natural disasters.
___
School facilities in Puerto Rico are neither designed nor prepared to face hotter and more frequent heat waves, according to interviews with school staff and experts, plus data provided by the Department of Education.
Heat makes it harder for children to learn
Exposure to extreme heat is linked to reduced cognitive function in childhood, particularly in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. The smallest children are particularly vulnerable because they sweat less and have faster metabolisms, according to an analysis by the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF.
Heat also acts as a psychological stressor, triggering anxiety and reducing memory capacity, said Nellie Zambrana, a school psychologist and professor at the University of Puerto Rico.
'In the afternoon, classes have to be much more strict than in the morning to keep students' attention. Otherwise the class just becomes, 'It's so hot, mister. It's so hot,'' said José Quintana, a math teacher who suffered heat exhaustion himself at the school in Culebra, Escuela Ecológica, in 2023.
The eastern educational region of Puerto Rico that includes Culebra reported 124 cases of students affected by extreme temperatures in 2024, according to data from the territory's education department. That's in line with a recent study that documented warming temperatures there and elsewhere around the island as a symptom of climate change.
Across Puerto Rico, an island of 3.2 million people, there have been over 795 emergency room visits for illnesses related to heat exposure since 2023, and 20% of them were by young people aged 18 or younger, according to the health department.
The island government has acknowledged a need for more resilient schools to cope with heat waves, but many schools lack cross-ventilation and have cooling systems that are broken or insufficient.
Students and teachers take a DIY approach to heat relief
At Escuela Luis Muñoz Marín in Yabucoa, in the island's southeast, the school community held raffles and collected a fee for dressing down on casual days to raise money to buy at least one fan for each classroom. Parents often send children to school with their own battery-powered fans to cope with the heat. Teachers have adapted by holding classes in the library, where there is air conditioning, said Josian Casanova, a history teacher at the high school.
Last year, some students felt sick and had to leave because of the heat, he said.
'It's hard for teachers to focus when it's so hot,' Casanova said. 'Imagine what it's like for students trying to concentrate.'
At the school in Culebra, the inconsistent power has also affected meal preparation. Changes in voltage have damaged equipment, including the ice machine and ceiling fans, said María Villanueva, who has worked at the school for five years. The three cafeteria staff members cook meals without a ventilation hood for the stove, and food spoils quickly because of heat and humidity in the storage room.
The heat poses challenges for schools on the U.S. mainland as well.
Over the last decade, demand for air conditioning at the start of the school year in the U.S. has risen 34%, according to an analysis from Climate Central, a science and communications nonprofit that researches climate change. In 2020, the U.S. Government Accountability Office estimated that 41 % of school districts needed to upgrade or replace their heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.
Demand for electricity has risen just as the island has been dealing with an energy crisis. Hurricane Maria in 2017 destroyed the island's electrical grid. Since the launch of privatization in 2021, electricity customers on average lose power four times a year for a total of about 13 hours.
Wednesdays
What's next in arts, life and pop culture.
The island's government has invested more than $15 million since 2021 in air-conditioning equipment for 14 schools, but there isn't always enough power to run them, especially when demand spikes during afternoons in the summer.
Escuela Luis Muñoz Marín installed air conditioning units this year, but they don't have enough power to turn them all on, Casanova said. The school has been waiting two years for the government to upgrade the building's power substation.
'If the power goes, there are no other options,' he said.
___
The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Medical museum in Philadelphia overhauls policies on human remains to meet modern ethical standards
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A medical museum in Philadelphia has redrawn its policies on the collection and display of human remains, limiting its acceptance of additional specimens and working to follow 'evolving modern medical ethical standards' in how it handles the 6,500 organs, bones and other body parts in its collection. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, which owns the Mutter Museum, announced this week it is restricting the taking of photos and videos of human remains, allowing it only with the museum's permission. Photography by the public will remain prohibited. The museum 'will allow photography as long as it sort of serves an educational purpose,' said Sara Ray, its director of interpretation and engagement. 'But education itself is a pretty broad net that we're working through.' The great majority of the remains were collected from about 1840 to about 1940, mostly from Philadelphia, largely body parts and organs that were considered to be helpful in medical education and taken during autopsies or surgery. Such collections were not uncommon among medical societies at a time when specimens were critical to understanding how the body is structured and how it works. But most of those museums are long gone. The Mutter Museum said it is also working to 'de-anonymize' its collection by looking into the personal histories of its human remains to figure out who they are, if possible, and to 'do justice' in how it displays them and tells their stories. The goal is to exhibit them in the context of the history of medicine, bodily diversity and the tools and therapies used to treat them. Museum researchers are using a variety of records to piece together those histories, focusing on where and when the remains were collected, but they are not employing DNA analysis. In some cases, the museum has information about the person that was recorded by the physician who collected the specimen. 'The goal is not finding an identity for finding an identity's sake,' Ray said. 'The goal is to find an identity so that we can build a richer biographical profile, through which we can then ask questions about the way that this person navigated the world. And so that's going to look very different for every single specimen.' The museum's new human remains policy says that many were 'obtained in unacceptable circumstances including through force or duress' and may have been used for research or in displays that are now considered to be examples of scientific racism. About 50 of its specimens are thought to be of Native American people. Since April 2024, nine remains have been repatriated to two tribes and one Native Hawaiian group. The remains will not be loaned out to other institutions, and research access to them must be approved by a group consisting of several top museum leaders. Research involving the collection tends to be about the history of medicine, not for purely biological study. The policy changes follow a two-year review, designed to engage the public in planning for the museum's future. As a result, hundreds of the museum's videos regarding items in the collection and on educational topics that were removed from YouTube in January 2023 are being restored to the streaming service after being reorganized, with out-of-date material removed. The museum plans to 'sharply limit' its future acquisition of human remains. It will consider accepting them from living primary donors or through a bequest but may decline such gifts. Wednesdays What's next in arts, life and pop culture. Museum visitor Ashley Davis, 47, said Thursday she appreciated the museum's efforts to educate guests on the difficulties people have endured and the lives they lived. 'I think it's important to know where these come from. These were human beings,' Davis said. The museum, which gets about 100,000 visitors annually, began as the collection of surgeon Dr. Thomas Dent Mutter, who in 1859 donated 1,700 objects and $30,000 to hire a curator and construct a fireproof building. His goal was to improve medical education. The collection now includes more than 35,000 objects with some half-million objects in the associated medical library. ___ Scolforo reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Toronto Sun
6 hours ago
- Toronto Sun
Bones of ancient child suggest humans could have interbred with Neanderthals earlier than thought
Published Aug 21, 2025 • 4 minute read This undated photo provided by Tel Aviv University shows a child's mandible that was excavated from Skhul Cave in northern Israel. Photo by Tel Aviv University via AP / AP TEL AVIV, Israel — Modern humans and Neanderthals were interacting 100,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to researchers who used CT scans and 3D mapping to study the bones of a child they believe was the result of interbreeding between the two distinct groups. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The child, described in a recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal L'Anthropologie, was buried in a cave in Israel some 140,000 years ago. Because no ancient DNA was extracted from the fossilized remains, it's impossible to confirm the child's origins, but scientists say microscopic details in the bones indicate the child had traits of both groups. When the bones were first excavated from Skhul Cave in northern Israel in 1931, archeologists recognized that the child belonged to neither Homo sapiens, who had arrived in the region from Africa, nor Neanderthals, who arrived from Europe. They concluded it was a separate species indigenous to the area. But the new 3D mapping allowed researchers to study small details of the skull that had previously been difficult to see or decipher. Researchers were able to examine distinctive traits such as the construction of the inner ear and the imprint of blood vessels that supplied the brain. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. By comparing known characteristics of both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, the researchers concluded the child was the result of interbreeding. Previously, the earliest known example of interbreeding between the groups was around 40,000 years ago in central Europe, explained Israel Hershkovitz, the lead researcher of the study and a professor of archeology and human evolution at Tel Aviv University. A new glimpse into ancient relations The new research helps shed light on when the two groups began interacting and offers clues about their relationships. 'What we're saying now is that there was an extensive relationship between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals that started around 140,000 years ago,' and the two groups 'managed to live side by side with no evidence for hostile encounters,' Hershkovitz said. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The interbreeding and shared cultural practices, including burials and tool construction, challenge the notion of Homo sapiens as 'intolerant' to other human groups due to their eventual dominance, Hershkovitz said. Without DNA, it will be impossible to prove that the child was a hybrid human, said Pascal Gagneux, an evolutionary biologist studying human origins at the University of California San Diego who was not involved in the research. Still, he said, the details revealed by the mapping, including the internal structure of some bones and several features, support the hybrid hypothesis. Peering inside an ancient skull Researchers took thousands of isolated scans of the skull and jaw of the child and then created a virtual 3D model of the fossil. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The model allowed them to analyze tiny details that are impossible to see on the fossilized bones, including delicate parts inside the skull. Blood vessels, for example, make a small imprint on the inside of a skull. While some of the grooves are visible to the naked eye, the 3D scans allowed researchers to see the blood vessels like 'tributaries of a river,' Hershkovitz said. The patterns are distinct between the two groups, because Neanderthals and Homo sapiens have different brain shapes that require different blood delivery. The virtual mapping created a more accurate reconstruction of the child's skull than could be built from the bones and plaster when the remains were originally excavated. The new reconstruction is much more elongated, which is more typical for Neanderthals, Gagneux said. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. However, the detailed reconstruction does not answer many of the questions surrounding the discovery, Gagneux said. Were the parents of the child also interbred? Or was one Neanderthal and the other Homo sapien? Why was the child, or anyone else, buried in the cave? Thomas Levy, a professor in cyber-archeology also at the University of California San Diego, said he was impressed by the study's use of 3D models. The advances in scientific visualization allow more accurate measurements and comparisons of specimens, said Levy, who was not involved in the research. The technology also offers archeologists a fresh opportunity to review conclusions from objects excavated many years ago. Living in harmony Skhul Cave is one of three caves in the region that represent some of the oldest known intentional burials in the world, dating to more than 100,000 years ago, in the middle of the Paleolithic era. Multiple sets of remains were found at each site, and some are still being painstakingly excavated with tiny drills, which could provide more clues in the future. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In ancient times, Israel was a land bridge and point of interaction between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Because Homo sapiens eventually replaced Neanderthals in the region and across the world, many people speculate that their interactions were violent and hostile, with Homo sapiens eventually responsible for the 'total elimination' of Neanderthals, Hershkovitz said. 'What Skhul is telling us is that Homo sapiens are not a vicious, aggressive creature, but one that managed to live in peace' with other groups, he said. 'Our aggressive behavior, which continues today in our long history, is a recent phenomenon that has cultural roots and not biological roots.' Columnists Columnists World Toronto & GTA Canada
Toronto Star
7 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Bones of ancient child suggest humans could have interbred with Neanderthals earlier than thought
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Modern humans and Neanderthals were interacting 100,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to researchers who used CT scans and 3D mapping to study the bones of a child they believe was the result of interbreeding between the two distinct groups. The child, described in a recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal L'Anthropologie, was buried in a cave in Israel some 140,000 years ago. Because no ancient DNA was extracted from the fossilized remains, it's impossible to confirm the child's origins, but scientists say microscopic details in the bones indicate the child had traits of both groups.
