East Central Reporter

Mattoon Community Unit School District 2 reported 1,200 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 1200 students during the year. This equates to 39 percent of the 3,059 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 106 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 18 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 18 incidents with drugs, one incident witha dangerous weapon firearm,10 incidents 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 880. There were 51 incidents of violence with injury. For 436 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 908 suspensions, while 292 girls were suspended.

There were 915 elementary or middle school students, and 285 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 167. There were 55 incidents of violence with injury. For 102 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	6
Violence with injury	51	55
Violence without injury	0	0
Drug offenses	8	10
Firearm	1	0
Other dangerous weapons	7	3
Tobacco	10	0
Other reason	880	167
Total	959	241

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	368	53
1-2 days	436	102
2-3 days	82	34
3-4 days	57	22
4-10 days	16	30
More than 10 days	0	0