Report: At Herrick Middle School, Black student rule-breaking rate notably exceeds that of white students

IL Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders (2023) | Illinois State Board of education

By DuPage Policy Journal

Nov 27, 2023

Black students, constituting 2.3% or 15 of Herrick Middle School's total student population of 640, accounted for 13 out of the 19 total suspensions (68.4%) 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, Herrick Middle School's 508 white students, who make up 79.4% of the school population, received three suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 169 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 19 total suspensions at Herrick Middle School in the 2021-22 school year, 12 were in-school suspensions and seven out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, eight student suspensions at Herrick Middle School were for violence-related offenses.

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying eight cases - 42.1% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Herrick Middle School reported 12 students - equivalent to 1.9% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 58 students, or 9.1% 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.

Herrick Middle School Infractions by Black Students Over 5 Years