Sangamon Sun

Pleasant Plains Community Unit School District 8 reported 35 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 35 students during the year. This equates to three percent of the 1,245 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for one incident with violence without physical injury, six incidents with alcohol and tobacco, three incidents with drugs, one incident with a dangerous weapon, other than a firearm.

The district reported that most in-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 15. For 12 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 26 suspensions, while nine girls were suspended.

There were 35 high school students suspended in 2021-22 school year.

The district reported that most out-of-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were nine. There were six incidents of tobacco. For 12 incidents, students were suspended for four to 10 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	0	1
Drug offenses	0	3
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	1
Tobacco	0	6
Other reason	15	9
Total	15	20

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	0	0
1-2 days	12	4
2-3 days	3	3
3-4 days	0	1
4-10 days	0	12
More than 10 days	0	0