Children Taken to Hospital After Suffering Heat Exhaustion at L.I. School

Several elementary school children were taken to a hospital on Long Island Thursday afternoon after they were overcome by heat while practicing for a performance inside an auditorium that was not air-conditioned, officials said.

Authorities said 12 children and one teacher from Riverside Elementary School in Rockville Centre, N.Y., suffered heat exhaustion, and five had to be taken to the hospital.

Their conditions were not immediately known.

The temperature in the school auditorium, where about 120 children were practicing, was over 100 degrees, according to Assistant Fire Chief John Thorpe.

School officials disputed that and said it was about 80 degrees. School Superintendent Bill Johnson said the children had eaten lunch in the room earlier.

Thorpe said it was far too hot for the children to have been practicing inside. The spring concert event, scheduled for Thursday night, was canceled.

Temps are boiling in the 90s around the region, and have reached 100 in some areas.

Hospitals in New Jersey have been treating numerous patients with heat-related illnesses.

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