South Central Reporter

Gillespie Community Unit School District 7 reported 140 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 140 students during the year. This equates to 12 percent of the 1,140 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for five incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 23 incidents with violence without physical injury, five incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 18 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 65. There were 17 incidents of violence without injury. For 76 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 92 suspensions, while 48 girls were suspended.

There were 61 elementary or middle school students, and 79 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 23. There were 17 incidents of drug offense. For 29 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	2	3
Violence without injury	17	6
Drug offenses	1	17
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	1
Tobacco	0	5
Other reason	65	23
Total	85	55

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	3	1
1-2 days	76	17
2-3 days	4	6
3-4 days	1	29
4-10 days	1	2
More than 10 days	0	0