East Central Reporter

Lawrence County Community Unit School District 20 reported 85 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 85 students during the year. This equates to eight percent of the 1,082 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for one incident with violence that caused physical injury, two incidents with violence without physical injury, one incident with alcohol and tobacco, one incident with drugs.

The district reported that most in-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 64. There was one incident of violence with injury. For 50 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 72 suspensions, while 13 girls were suspended.

There were two elementary or middle school students, and 83 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 16. There was one incident of violence without injury. For seven incidents, students were 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	1	0
Violence without injury	1	1
Drug offenses	0	1
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	0
Tobacco	1	0
Other reason	64	16
Total	67	18

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	9	0
1-2 days	50	4
2-3 days	4	5
3-4 days	4	7
4-10 days	0	2
More than 10 days	0	0