Report: At Du Quoin High School, Hispanic student rule-breaking rate notably exceeds that of white students

Chair of the Board Dr. Steven Isoye (2023) | Illinois State Board of education

By South West Illinois News Reports

Nov 29, 2023

Hispanic students, constituting 2.6% or 13 of Du Quoin High School's total student population of 502, accounted for 13 out of the 153 total suspensions (8.5%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging one suspension per student, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Du Quoin High School's 415 white students, who make up 82.7% of the school population, received 109 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per four white students, which is definitively lower than that of Hispanic students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 153 total suspensions at Du Quoin High School in the 2021-22 school year, 143 were in-school suspensions and 10 out-of-school suspensions.

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

During the 2021-22 school year, Du Quoin High School reported 58 students - equivalent to 11.6% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 142 students, or 28.3% 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.

Du Quoin High School Infractions by Hispanic Students Over 5 Years