East Central Reporter

White students, constituting 50.8% or 151 of Arcola High School's total student population of 297, accounted for 43 out of the 66 total suspensions (65.2%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per four students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Arcola High School's 140 Hispanic students, who make up 47.1% of the school population, received 21 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per seven Hispanic students, which is definitively lower than that of white students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 66 total suspensions at Arcola High School in the 2021-22 school year, 27 were in-school suspensions and 39 out-of-school suspensions.

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

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying 15 cases - 22.7% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Arcola High School reported 70 students - equivalent to 23.5% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 86 students, or 28.9% 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	140	21	0.15
White	151	43	0.28