Discipline at Lincoln Community High School: Black students most affected in 2021-22 school year

Lincoln Community High School Principal Mr. David Helm (2023) | Lincoln Community High School

By Sangamon Sun

Nov 30, 2023

Black students, constituting 2.5% or 21 of Lincoln Community High School's total student population of 828, accounted for three out of the 15 total suspensions (20%) 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, Lincoln Community High School's 730 white students, who make up 88.2% of the school population, received eight suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 91 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 15 total suspensions at Lincoln Community High School in the 2021-22 school year, four were in-school suspensions and 11 out-of-school suspensions.

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

The most common infraction causing suspension was drug offenses offenses, tallying four cases - 26.7% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Lincoln Community High School reported 148 students - equivalent to 17.9% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 221 students, or 26.7% 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.

Lincoln Community High School Infractions by Black Students Over 5 Years