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Will County Gazette

Monday, April 29, 2024

Report: At Spring Brook Elementary School, Black student rule-breaking rate notably exceeds that of white students

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Spring Brook Elementary School Principal David Worst (2023) | Spring Brook Elementary School

Spring Brook Elementary School Principal David Worst (2023) | Spring Brook Elementary School

Black students, constituting 2.5% or 14 of Spring Brook Elementary School's total student population of 566, accounted for two out of the three total suspensions (66.7%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging one suspension per seven students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Spring Brook Elementary School's 297 white students, who make up 52.5% of the school population, received one suspension. This translates to an average of one suspension per 297 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the three total suspensions at Spring Brook Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, all of them were out-of-school suspensions.

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

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

In addition, 31 students, or 5.4% 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.

Spring Brook Elementary School Infractions by Black Students Over 5 Years
0369121518212427302017-182018-192019-202021-22Total InfractionsInfractions by Black students

Spring Brook Elementary School Infractions by Race in 2021-22 School Year
RaceNumber of StudentsTotal InfractionsInfractions Per Student
Black1420.14
White29710

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