DeKalb Times

Hispanic students, constituting 10.5% or 122 of Sycamore High School's total student population of 1,162, accounted for 17 out of the 65 total suspensions (26.2%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per seven students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Sycamore High School's 945 white students, who make up 81.3% of the school population, received 40 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 24 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Hispanic students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 65 total suspensions at Sycamore High School in the 2021-22 school year, 10 were in-school suspensions and 55 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 11 student suspensions at Sycamore High School were for offenses including drugs.

The most common infraction causing suspension, however, was tobacco offenses, tallying 14 cases - 21.5% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Sycamore High School reported 119 students - equivalent to 10.2% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 338 students, or 29.1% 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 16.3% of all students who were chronically truant, and 41.1% of the 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	122	17	0.14
Black	35	4	0.11
Multiracial	29	4	0.14
White	945	40	0.04