Spanish school kids seek heat relief... in funeral home

MADRID: It is hot in Spain, so much so that over-heated students near Madrid were transferred from their school to a cooler place... which turned out to be the local air-conditioned funeral home. The unusual decision is just one of several measures taken in recent days as the country goes through a heatwave with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius in some places including the Spanish capital. A spokesman for emergency services in the region told AFP that dozens of “students aged 12 to 18 were transferred to a place close to their school, an air-conditioned funeral home” in Valdemoro near Madrid on Thursday. The reason? Extreme heat. “Five students had been taken to hospital, one for heatstroke, the others because they were nervous” due to the heat, the spokesman said. The school year in Spain ends before the end of June — earlier than in other European countries — due to the summer heat. But with temperatures hitting record highs, controversy is growing over public schools’ lack of readiness for scorching heat, hit as they were by spending cuts during the financial crisis.

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