West Cook News

Hispanic students, constituting 42.9% or 129 of William F. Gurrie Middle School's total student population of 301, accounted for 13 out of the 17 total suspensions (76.5%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per 10 students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, William F. Gurrie Middle School's 139 white students, who make up 46.2% of the school population, received one suspension. This translates to an average of one suspension per 139 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Hispanic students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 17 total suspensions at William F. Gurrie Middle School in the 2021-22 school year, six were in-school suspensions and 11 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, three student suspensions at William F. Gurrie Middle School were for violence-related offenses and three for those including drugs.

The most common infraction causing suspension were violence and drug offenses offenses, tallying six cases - 35.3% of the total infractions.

In addition, 74 students, or 24.7% of the student population, fell into the chronically absent category, a broader measure that includes all absences, excused or not.

Hispanic students were notably overrepresented in these statistics, comprising 31.1% of all students who were 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	129	13	0.1
Multiracial	17	2	0.12
White	139	1	0.01