Extreme heat sent several students to the nurse's office at Garfield Elementary School on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for the City of San Diego also confirmed that a 9-year-old boy there had difficulty breathing, and was sent to Rady Children's Hospital in a non-emergency ambulance. It is still unconfirmed if that specific case was heat related.
The San Diego Unified School District spoke with ABC 10News about how it's been addressing issues with air conditioning units at other schools, and 10News received a tip about classrooms at Garfield having the same problem when Wednesday's incident occurred.
Lisa Rigg is a parent and the president of the Parent Teacher Organization at Garfield Elementary. She says she saw what happened with kids getting sick.
"My kiddo forgot his water bottle, so I just swung by the school and saw all the action go down. We saw the paramedics here at the school and a kiddo come out on a stretcher," Rigg said with teary eyes. "We were pretty upset that people were fainting, kiddos were getting sick, throwing up and the teachers had headaches as well."
Parents received a letter from the principal of Garfield Elementary addressing what happened.
"Some students became ill this morning at school due to the heat and humidity. Our staff contacted the families of students who felt sick, and our school nurse treated students in our office," the letter said.
The letter also said that the district sent out temporary, portable AC units and students were being relocated to cooler areas.
For Brian Lynch, another parent at Garfield, that did not sound ideal.
"My kids shouldn't be going out to a field, or having class in the hallway, or anything like that; they should be having class in class," Lynch said.
Rigg said that she was encouraged when all the parents came together to immediately take action and do something about what was causing the student to be sent to the nurse's office.
Riggs said she, along with the group, collectively sent texts, made phone calls and wrote emails to the district demanding it fix the broken AC units in the classrooms.
Rigg's husband, Brandon, said that the school quickly made sure technicians were coming to fix the problem.
"We are grateful for the school front office staff and the district coming in and making it right," Riggs said.
ABC 10News contacted the district to confirm if the problem was fixed, and one spokesperson responded that the "District technicians were able to resolve the issues Garfield was having with AC."
Lynch said that after what happened just a day ago, he had conversations with his kids about how to look out for signs of heat exhaustion in and out of class.
"If you're feeling sick or ill, it is OK to speak up and say, 'Hey, I don't feel good; I need to get out of here,'" Lynch said he told his kids,
10News also spoke to other parents dropping their kids off at Garfield Elementary on Thursday morning and asked them what their reactions were to the principal's letter.
The parents said they asked their kids about their classroom temperatures, and they said they felt fine.
