Illinois State Board of education | Vice Chair of the Board Dr. Donna S. Leak (2023)
Illinois State Board of education | Vice Chair of the Board Dr. Donna S. Leak (2023)
During the same period, Edison Junior High School's 162 white students, who make up 38.7% of the school population, received 10 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 16 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students.
Multiracial students at Edison Junior High School behaved worse than whites, but better than Blacks, with four suspensions for 33 students in the 2021-22 school year - an average of roughly one suspension per eight multiracial students.
In contrast, Hispanic students, who make up 9.5% of the student body at Edison Junior High School, had the lowest suspension ratio with an average of one suspension per 40 Hispanic students, totaling one suspension. This rate is definitively lower than that of Black students, establishing them as the best-behaved racial group in the school.
Of the 48 total suspensions at Edison Junior High School in the 2021-22 school year, nine were in-school suspensions and 39 out-of-school suspensions.
According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 22 student suspensions at Edison Junior High School were for violence-related offenses and three for those including drugs.
The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying 22 cases - 45.8% of the total infractions.
During the 2021-22 school year, Edison Junior High School reported 222 students - equivalent to 52.9% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 150 students, or 35.7% of the student population, fell into the chronically absent category, a broader measure that includes all absences, excused or not.
Black students were notably overrepresented in these statistics, comprising 73.8% of all students who were chronically truant, and 50.9% of the chronically absent.
In a broader context, data from the ProPublica database indicates that Black students are suspended at a rate 4.6 times higher than white students in Illinois—surpassing the already high national average rate of 3.9 times.
However, districts’ officials deny a direct link between these statistics and race. Lisa Small, the Superintendent of District 211, argues that these numbers oversimplify the situation. “Decisions are highly individualized and based on the specific behavior and are not well-suited to a simple numerical analysis,” she wrote in a statement. “They are not a statistic to us, but a developing young adult.”
Illinois ranks 12th in the nation for the highest rate of suspensions among Black students relative to their white peers.
| Race | Number of Students | Total Infractions | Infractions Per Student |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hispanic | 40 | 1 | 0.03 |
| Black | 146 | 33 | 0.23 |
| Multiracial | 33 | 4 | 0.12 |
| White | 162 | 10 | 0.06 |
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