Metro East Sun

Cahokia Community Unit School District 187 reported 729 suspensions or expulsions for the 2021-22 school year, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

The district removed 136 students to alternative settings instead of suspending or expelling them. This equates to five percent of the 3,013 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 26 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 302 incidents with violence without physical injury, five incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 29 incidents with drugs, five incidents witha dangerous weapon firearm,one incident with a dangerous weapon, other than a firearm.

Boy students received 392 suspensions, while 337 girls were suspended.

There were 417 elementary or middle school students, and 312 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 361. There were 302 incidents of violence without injury. For 255 incidents, students were suspended for four to 10 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		5
Violence with injury		26
Violence without injury		302
Drug offenses		29
Firearm		5
Other dangerous weapons		1
Tobacco		0
Other reason		361
Total		729

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less		3
1-2 days		208
2-3 days		103
3-4 days		159
4-10 days		255
More than 10 days		1