McLean County Times

Black students, constituting 16.3% or 127 of Kingsley Junior High School's total student population of 778, accounted for 256 out of the 448 total suspensions (57.1%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly 2 suspensions per student, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Kingsley Junior High School's 512 white students, who make up 65.8% of the school population, received 112 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per five white students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 448 total suspensions at Kingsley Junior High School in the 2021-22 school year, 295 were in-school suspensions and 153 out-of-school suspensions. In addition to suspensions, two students were expelled from the school. In addition to suspensions, two students were expelled from the school.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, four student suspensions at Kingsley Junior High School were for offenses including drugs.

During the 2021-22 school year, Kingsley Junior High School reported 93 students - equivalent to 12% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 173 students, or 22.2% 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 35.8% of all students who were chronically truant, and 45% 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	40	24	0.6
Black	127	256	2.02
Multiracial	52	56	1.08
White	512	112	0.22