Coal City Middle School Principal Mr. Travis Johnson (2023) | Coal City Middle School
Coal City Middle School Principal Mr. Travis Johnson (2023) | Coal City Middle School
During the same period, Coal City Middle School's 443 white students, who make up 88.8% of the school population, received 41 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 11 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Hispanic students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.
Of the 59 total suspensions at Coal City Middle School in the 2021-22 school year, 30 were in-school suspensions and 29 out-of-school suspensions. Instead of opting for traditional suspensions or expulsions for some cases, the school administration decided to relocate two students to alternative educational settings.
According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 12 student suspensions at Coal City Middle School were for violence-related offenses and for an offense including drugs.
The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying 12 cases - 20.3% of the total infractions.
During the 2021-22 school year, Coal City Middle School reported 19 students - equivalent to 3.9% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 61 students, or 12.2% of the student population, fell into the chronically absent category, a broader measure that includes all absences, excused or not.
Hispanic students were notably overrepresented in these statistics, comprising 25.5% 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 | 42 | 7 | 0.17 |
| White | 443 | 41 | 0.09 |
Alerts Sign-up