Metro East Sun

Bethalto Consolidated Unit School District 8 reported 551 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 551 students during the year. This equates to 23 percent of the 2,390 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for six incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 21 incidents with violence without physical injury, 33 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, eight incidents with drugs, four 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 380. There were 29 incidents of tobacco. For 233 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 376 suspensions, while 175 girls were suspended.

There were 253 elementary or middle school students, and 298 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 99. There were 16 incidents of violence without injury. For 48 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	0
Violence with injury	1	5
Violence without injury	5	16
Drug offenses	1	7
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	1	3
Tobacco	29	4
Other reason	380	99
Total	417	134

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	78	16
1-2 days	233	48
2-3 days	72	14
3-4 days	30	38
4-10 days	4	18
More than 10 days	0	0