Discipline at Liberty High School: Multiracial students most affected in 2021-22 school year

Vice Chair of the Board Dr. Donna S. Leak (2023) | Illinois State Board of education

By Quincy Reporter

Nov 26, 2023

Multiracial students, constituting 4% or 11 of Liberty High School's total student population of 273, accounted for four out of the 42 total suspensions (9.5%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per three students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Liberty High School's 259 white students, who make up 94.9% of the school population, received 38 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per seven white students, which is definitively lower than that of multiracial students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 42 total suspensions at Liberty High School in the 2021-22 school year, 26 were in-school suspensions and 16 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, two student suspensions at Liberty High School were for violence-related offenses.

During the 2021-22 school year, Liberty High School reported 15 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, 35 students, or 12.9% 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.

Liberty High School Infractions by Multiracial Students Over 5 Years