Illinois Valley Times

White students, constituting 59.9% or 370 of Northlawn Junior High School's total student population of 618, accounted for 75 out of the 112 total suspensions (67%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per five students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Northlawn Junior High School's 159 Hispanic students, who make up 25.7% of the school population, received 16 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 10 Hispanic students, which is definitively lower than that of white students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 112 total suspensions at Northlawn Junior High School in the 2021-22 school year, one was in-school suspension and 111 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 26 student suspensions at Northlawn Junior High School were for violence-related offenses and six for those including drugs.

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying 26 cases - 23.2% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Northlawn Junior High School reported 111 students - equivalent to 18% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 185 students, or 30% 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.

Race	Number of Students	Total Infractions	Infractions Per Student
Hispanic	159	16	0.1
Black	31	8	0.26
Multiracial	49	13	0.27
White	370	75	0.2