North Cook News

Hispanic students, constituting 7.4% or 54 of Hunting Ridge Elementary School's total student population of 732, accounted for nine out of the 12 total suspensions (75%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging one suspension per six students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Hunting Ridge Elementary School's 278 Asian students, who make up 38% of the school population, received one suspension. This translates to an average of one suspension per 278 Asian students, which is definitively lower than that of Hispanic students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 12 total suspensions at Hunting Ridge Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, seven were in-school suspensions and five out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 11 student suspensions at Hunting Ridge Elementary School were for violence-related offenses.

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying 11 cases - 91.7% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Hunting Ridge Elementary School reported 96 students - equivalent to 13.1% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 107 students, or 14.6% 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 16.7% of all students who were chronically truant, and 22.7% 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	54	9	0.17
Black	43	2	0.05
Asian	278	1	0