Discipline at Metamora Grade School: Multiracial students most affected in 2021-22 school year

Metamora Grade School Principal Mr. Tim Damery (2023) | Metamora Grade School

By Peoria Standard

Dec 19, 2023

Multiracial students, constituting 3.4% or 27 of Metamora Grade School's total student population of 795, accounted for six out of the 27 total suspensions (22.2%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per five students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Metamora Grade School's 743 white students, who make up 93.5% of the school population, received 20 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 37 white students, which is definitively lower than that of multiracial students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 27 total suspensions at Metamora Grade School in the 2021-22 school year, 26 were in-school suspensions and one out-of-school suspension.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, all student suspensions at Metamora Grade School were for violence-related offenses.

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying 27 cases - 100% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Metamora Grade School reported 18 students - equivalent to 2.3% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 111 students, or 13.9% 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.

Metamora Grade School Infractions by Multiracial Students Over 5 Years