Metro East Sun

Alton Community Unit School District 11 reported 655 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 655 students during the year. This equates to 11 percent of the 5,800 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 88 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 65 incidents with violence without physical injury, 33 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 23 incidents with drugs, three 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 339. There were 34 incidents of violence without injury. For 297 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 447 suspensions, while 202 girls were suspended.

There were 283 elementary or middle school students, and 372 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 104. There were 75 incidents of violence with injury. For 68 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	0	2
Violence with injury	13	75
Violence without injury	34	31
Drug offenses	7	16
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	3
Tobacco	31	0
Other reason	339	104
Total	424	231

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	52	8
1-2 days	297	68
2-3 days	70	52
3-4 days	4	53
4-10 days	1	50
More than 10 days	0	0