Sangamon Sun

Mount Pulaski Community Unit School District 23 reported 38 suspensions or expulsions for the 2021-22 school year, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

According to the report, the district expelled or suspended 38 students during the year. This equates to eight percent of the 505 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for three incidents with violence without physical injury, four incidents with alcohol and tobacco, three incidents with drugs.

The district reported that most in-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 28. There were four incidents of tobacco. For 18 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 14 suspensions, while 24 girls were suspended.

There were 38 high school students suspended in 2021-22 school year.

The district reported that most out-of-school suspensions were given for drug offense, of which there were two. For one incident, student was suspended for three to four days.

Illinois ranks as the 5th state in terms of the overall number of schools and student enrollment among all states.

Illinois lawmakers enacted laws in 2015 to restrict schools from disciplining a disproportionate number of Black and minority students out of school and into the criminal justice system, often for minor misbehavior.

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
Alcohol	0	0
Violence with injury	0	0
Violence without injury	3	0
Drug offenses	1	2
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	0
Tobacco	4	0
Other reason	28	0
Total	36	2

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	16	0
1-2 days	18	0
2-3 days	2	0
3-4 days	0	1
4-10 days	0	1
More than 10 days	0	0