Fewer District 97 students suspended this year

Only a tiny slice of the middle-school population in Oak Park District 97 have been disciplined this school year, with fighting being the most frequent offense, according to data from the district.

Roughly 5 percent of the total middle-school student population has been disciplined. That's 87 students out of roughly 1,800 kids enrolled at Brooks and Julian middle schools.

Fighting was the top offense at the two schools the last four years. According to recently released reports, only covering the middle schools, 31 in-school suspensions (ISS) have been issued so far for the 2012-2013 school year, all in the fighting/aggression category. That's down from 42 the previous year. There were 23 in-school suspensions in 2010-11 and 49 the year before that.

Twenty-one out-of-school suspensions (OSS) have been issued for fighting and aggression this school year. In the three previous years, 12, 24 and 14 were issued, respectively. Male students overall, as well as African-American students, received the most suspensions.

District officials, however, note that the vast majority of boys in the district have received no suspensions at all. That's also true for black students, with nearly 90 percent of that overall population not receiving any suspensions.