Discipline at Geneseo Middle School: Multiracial students most affected in 2021-22 school year

Chair of the Board Dr. Steven Isoye (2023) | Illinois State Board of education

By Rock Island Today Reports

Dec 17, 2023

Multiracial students, constituting 2.5% or 15 of Geneseo Middle School's total student population of 591, accounted for seven out of the 81 total suspensions (8.6%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per two students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Geneseo Middle School's 535 white students, who make up 90.5% of the school population, received 69 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per eight white students, which is definitively lower than that of multiracial students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 81 total suspensions at Geneseo Middle School in the 2021-22 school year, 38 were in-school suspensions and 43 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 24 student suspensions at Geneseo Middle School were for violence-related offenses and for an offense including drugs.

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying 24 cases - 29.6% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Geneseo Middle School reported 30 students - equivalent to 5.1% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 57 students, or 9.6% of the student population, fell into the chronically absent category, a broader measure that includes all absences, excused or not.

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.

Geneseo Middle School Infractions by Multiracial Students Over 5 Years