Metro East Sun

East St. Louis School District 189 reported 1,670 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 1670 students during the year. This equates to 36 percent of the 4,618 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 108 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 482 incidents with violence without physical injury, 103 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, three incidents witha dangerous weapon firearm,19 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 562. There were 22 incidents of violence without injury. For 543 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 892 suspensions, while 694 girls were suspended.

There were 1,019 elementary or middle school students, and 651 high school students suspended in 2021-22 school year.

The district reported that most out-of-school suspensions were given for violence without injury, of which there were 460. There were 393 incidents of unspecified reasons. For 399 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	13	71
Violence with injury	5	103
Violence without injury	22	460
Drug offenses	0	0
Firearm	0	3
Other dangerous weapons	0	19
Tobacco	0	19
Other reason	562	393
Total	602	1068

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	1	0
1-2 days	543	127
2-3 days	44	210
3-4 days	10	331
4-10 days	3	399
More than 10 days	1	1