Galesburg Reporter

White students, constituting 61.3% or 322 of Monmouth-Roseville High School's total student population of 525, accounted for 27 out of the 40 total suspensions (67.5%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per 12 students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Monmouth-Roseville High School's 152 Hispanic students, who make up 29% of the school population, received 11 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 14 Hispanic students, which is lower than that of white students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 40 total suspensions at Monmouth-Roseville High School in the 2021-22 school year, 13 were in-school suspensions and 27 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 33 student suspensions at Monmouth-Roseville High School were for violence-related offenses and three for those including drugs.

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying 33 cases - 82.5% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Monmouth-Roseville High School reported 116 students - equivalent to 22.1% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 164 students, or 31.2% of the student population, fell into the chronically absent category, a broader measure that includes all absences, excused or not.

White students were notably overrepresented in these statistics, comprising 32.6% 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	152	11	0.07
Black	14	2	0.14
White	322	27	0.08