Discipline at Sycamore Middle School: Black students most affected in 2021-22 school year

Sycamore Middle School Principal Mr. James Cleven (2023) | Sycamore Middle School

By DeKalb Times

Dec 19, 2023

Black students, constituting 2.4% or 20 of Sycamore Middle School's total student population of 840, accounted for seven out of the 66 total suspensions (10.6%) 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, Sycamore Middle School's 688 white students, who make up 81.9% of the school population, received 47 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 15 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 66 total suspensions at Sycamore Middle School in the 2021-22 school year, 28 were in-school suspensions and 38 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, one student suspension at Sycamore Middle School was for an offense including drugs.

During the 2021-22 school year, Sycamore Middle School reported 25 students - equivalent to 3% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 135 students, or 16.1% 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.

Sycamore Middle School Infractions by Black Students Over 5 Years