Southern Illinois News

Hispanic students, constituting 6.9% or 18 of Anna Junior High School's total student population of 260, accounted for four out of the 47 total suspensions (8.5%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per five students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Anna Junior High School's 227 white students, who make up 87.3% of the school population, received 38 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per six white students, which is lower than that of Hispanic students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 47 total suspensions at Anna Junior High School in the 2021-22 school year, 20 were in-school suspensions and 27 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, eight student suspensions at Anna Junior High School were for violence-related offenses and four for those including drugs.

The most common infraction causing suspension were violence and tobacco offenses, tallying 16 cases - 34% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Anna Junior High School reported 14 students - equivalent to 5.4% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 86 students, or 32.9% 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	18	4	0.22
White	227	38	0.17