Sangamon Sun

Community Unit School District 16 reported 40 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 40 students during the year. This equates to five percent of the 848 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for seven incidents with violence that caused physical injury, nine incidents with violence without physical injury, 18 incidents with alcohol and tobacco.

The district reported that most in-school suspensions were given for tobacco, of which there were 13. There were three incidents of violence with injury. For 20 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 33 suspensions, while seven girls were suspended.

There were 18 elementary or middle school students, and 22 high school students suspended in 2021-22 school year.

The district reported that most out-of-school suspensions were given for violence without injury, of which there were seven. There were four incidents of violence with injury. For six incidents, students were suspended for a day or less.

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	2	3
Violence with injury	3	4
Violence without injury	2	7
Drug offenses	0	0
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	0
Tobacco	13	0
Other reason	3	3
Total	23	17

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	1	6
1-2 days	20	6
2-3 days	2	1
3-4 days	0	3
4-10 days	0	1
More than 10 days	0	0