NW Illinois News

Multiracial students, constituting 4% or 18 of Byron High School 9-12's total student population of 455, accounted for 11 out of the 57 total suspensions (19.3%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per two students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Byron High School 9-12's 395 white students, who make up 86.8% of the school population, received 40 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 10 white students, which is definitively lower than that of multiracial students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 57 total suspensions at Byron High School 9-12 in the 2021-22 school year, 27 were in-school suspensions and 30 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, seven student suspensions at Byron High School 9-12 were for violence-related offenses and four for those including drugs.

The most common infraction causing suspension were violence and tobacco offenses, tallying 14 cases - 24.6% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Byron High School 9-12 reported 26 students - equivalent to 5.8% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 155 students, or 34% of the student population, fell into the chronically absent category, a broader measure that includes all absences, excused or not.

Multiracial students were notably overrepresented in these statistics, comprising 52.6% 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	31	4	0.13
Multiracial	18	11	0.61
White	395	40	0.1