Discipline at Mattoon High School: Black students most affected in 2021-22 school year

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

By East Central Reporter Reports

Nov 28, 2023

Black students, constituting 3.2% or 30 of Mattoon High School's total student population of 947, accounted for 23 out of the 285 total suspensions (8.1%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per student, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Mattoon High School's 808 white students, who make up 85.3% of the school population, received 214 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per four white students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 285 total suspensions at Mattoon High School in the 2021-22 school year, 217 were in-school suspensions and 68 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 35 student suspensions at Mattoon High School were for violence-related offenses and 15 for those including drugs.

During the 2021-22 school year, Mattoon High School reported 245 students - equivalent to 25.9% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 379 students, or 40% 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 48.6% of all students who were chronically truant, and 65.7% 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.

Mattoon High School Infractions by Black Students Over 5 Years