Sangamon Sun

Ball-Chatham Community Unit School District 5 reported 156 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 156 students during the year. This equates to three percent of the 4,636 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for nine incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 61 incidents with violence without physical injury, five incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 21 incidents with drugs, five incidents with a dangerous weapon, other than a firearm.

Boy students received 108 suspensions, while 48 girls were suspended.

There were 85 elementary or middle school students, and 71 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 61. There were 55 incidents of unspecified reasons. For 49 incidents, students were suspended for one to two 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		2
Violence with injury		9
Violence without injury		61
Drug offenses		21
Firearm		0
Other dangerous weapons		5
Tobacco		3
Other reason		55
Total		156

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less		7
1-2 days		49
2-3 days		43
3-4 days		37
4-10 days		20
More than 10 days		0