Macon Reporter

Multiracial students, constituting 17.4% or 120 of Montessori Academy for Peace's total student population of 689, accounted for eight out of the 29 total suspensions (27.6%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging one suspension per 15 students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Montessori Academy for Peace's 344 white students, who make up 49.9% of the school population, received 11 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 31 white students, which is definitively lower than that of multiracial students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 29 total suspensions at Montessori Academy for Peace in the 2021-22 school year, one was in-school suspension and 28 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 18 student suspensions at Montessori Academy for Peace were for violence-related offenses.

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying 18 cases - 62.1% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Montessori Academy for Peace reported 81 students - equivalent to 11.7% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 156 students, or 22.6% 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.

Race	Number of Students	Total Infractions	Infractions Per Student
Black	211	9	0.04
Multiracial	120	8	0.07
White	344	11	0.03