McHenry Times

Hispanic students, constituting 15.2% or 118 of Richard F. Bernotas Middle School's total student population of 778, accounted for 33 out of the 71 total suspensions (46.5%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per four students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Richard F. Bernotas Middle School's 577 white students, who make up 74.2% of the school population, received 35 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 16 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Hispanic students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 71 total suspensions at Richard F. Bernotas Middle School in the 2021-22 school year, 49 were in-school suspensions and 22 out-of-school suspensions. Instead of opting for traditional suspensions or expulsions for some cases, the school administration decided to relocate one student to alternative educational settings.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 13 student suspensions at Richard F. Bernotas Middle School were for violence-related offenses.

During the 2021-22 school year, Richard F. Bernotas Middle School reported 16 students - equivalent to 2% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 203 students, or 26.1% 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 32% of all students who were 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	118	33	0.28
Black	16	3	0.19
White	577	35	0.06