Chair of the Board Dr. Steven Isoye (2023) | Illinois State Board of education
Chair of the Board Dr. Steven Isoye (2023) | Illinois State Board of education
During the same period, Stillman Valley High School's 387 white students, who make up 83.8% of the school population, received 29 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 13 white students, which is definitively lower than that of multiracial students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.
Of the 52 total suspensions at Stillman Valley High School in the 2021-22 school year, two were in-school suspensions and 50 out-of-school suspensions.
According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, five student suspensions at Stillman Valley High School were for violence-related offenses and 10 for those including drugs.
The most common infraction causing suspension, however, was tobacco offenses, tallying 21 cases - 40.4% of the total infractions.
During the 2021-22 school year, Stillman Valley High School reported 27 students - equivalent to 5.9% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 128 students, or 27.6% 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 | 55 | 10 | 0.18 |
| Multiracial | 11 | 9 | 0.82 |
| White | 387 | 29 | 0.07 |
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