South Cook News

Hispanic students, constituting 9.2% or 72 of Old Quarry Middle School's total student population of 785, accounted for one out of the three total suspensions (33.3%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging one suspension per 72 students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Old Quarry Middle School's 668 white students, who make up 85.1% of the school population, received two suspensions. This translates to an average of one suspension per 334 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Hispanic students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the three total suspensions at Old Quarry Middle School in the 2021-22 school year, two were in-school suspensions and one out-of-school suspension.

The most common infraction causing suspension, however, was tobacco offenses, tallying two cases - 66.7% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Old Quarry Middle School reported 34 students - equivalent to 4.3% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 111 students, or 14.2% 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 26.8% 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	72	1	0.01
White	668	2	0