Lake County Gazette

Black students, constituting 32.2% or 109 of A.J. Katzenmaier Academy's total student population of 338, accounted for 53 out of the 68 total suspensions (77.9%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per two students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, A.J. Katzenmaier Academy's 160 Hispanic students, who make up 47.3% of the school population, received five suspensions. This translates to an average of one suspension per 32 Hispanic students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 68 total suspensions at A.J. Katzenmaier Academy in the 2021-22 school year, one was in-school suspension and 67 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 37 student suspensions at A.J. Katzenmaier Academy were for violence-related offenses.

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying 37 cases - 54.4% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, A.J. Katzenmaier Academy reported 183 students - equivalent to 54% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 165 students, or 48.7% of the student population, fell into the chronically absent category, a broader measure that includes all absences, excused or not.

Black students were notably overrepresented in these statistics, comprising 66.7% of all students who were chronically truant, and 61.5% 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	160	5	0.03
Black	109	53	0.49
Multiracial	18	4	0.22
White	41	5	0.12