South West Illinois News

Black students, constituting 5.4% or 21 of Du Quoin Middle School's total student population of 388, accounted for 13 out of the 162 total suspensions (8%) 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, Du Quoin Middle School's 329 white students, who make up 84.8% of the school population, received 137 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per two white students, which, while appearing the same, is marginally lower than that of Black students when comparing raw counts.

In contrast, multiracial students, who make up 8.2% of the student body at Du Quoin Middle School, had the lowest suspension ratio with an average of roughly one suspension per three multiracial students, totaling 11 suspensions. This rate is definitively lower than that of Black students, establishing them as the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 162 total suspensions at Du Quoin Middle School in the 2021-22 school year, 141 were in-school suspensions and 21 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 16 student suspensions at Du Quoin Middle School were for violence-related offenses.

During the 2021-22 school year, Du Quoin Middle School reported 48 students - equivalent to 12.4% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 88 students, or 22.7% 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
Black	21	13	0.62
Multiracial	32	11	0.34
White	329	137	0.42