West Cook News

Multiracial students, constituting 4.2% or 18 of Highlands Middle School's total student population of 429, accounted for two out of the five total suspensions (40%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging one suspension per nine students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Highlands Middle School's 321 white students, who make up 74.8% of the school population, received one suspension. This translates to an average of one suspension per 321 white students, which is definitively lower than that of multiracial students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the five total suspensions at Highlands Middle School in the 2021-22 school year, two were in-school suspensions and three out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, one student suspension at Highlands Middle School was for violence-related offenses and two for those including drugs.

The most common infraction causing suspension was drug offenses offenses, tallying two cases - 40% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Highlands Middle School reported 17 students - equivalent to 3.9% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 42 students, or 9.7% 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	65	2	0.03
Multiracial	18	2	0.11
White	321	1	0