Dupage Policy Journal

Black students, constituting 11.4% or 96 of Thayer J. Hill Middle School's total student population of 839, accounted for 91 out of the 139 total suspensions (65.5%) 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, Thayer J. Hill Middle School's 301 Asian students, who make up 35.9% of the school population, received four suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 75 Asian students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 139 total suspensions at Thayer J. Hill Middle School in the 2021-22 school year, 98 were in-school suspensions and 41 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 78 student suspensions at Thayer J. Hill Middle School were for violence-related offenses and for an offense including drugs.

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying 78 cases - 56.1% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Thayer J. Hill Middle School reported 27 students - equivalent to 3.2% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 125 students, or 14.9% 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 9.4% of all students who were chronically truant, and 24.5% 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.

Race	Number of Students	Total Infractions	Infractions Per Student
Hispanic	113	21	0.19
Black	96	91	0.95
Asian	301	4	0.01
Multiracial	44	13	0.3
White	283	10	0.04