Metro East Sun

Edwardsville Community Unit School District 7 reported 1,156 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 1156 students during the year. This equates to 16 percent of the 7,328 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for seven incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 170 incidents with violence without physical injury, 144 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 143 incidents with drugs, nine 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 546. There were 112 incidents of violence without injury. For 558 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 667 suspensions, while 273 girls were suspended.

There were 387 elementary or middle school students, and 769 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 137. There were 75 incidents of drug offense. For 120 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	9	11
Violence with injury	2	5
Violence without injury	112	58
Drug offenses	68	75
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	3	6
Tobacco	102	22
Other reason	546	137
Total	842	314

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	27	5
1-2 days	558	85
2-3 days	127	50
3-4 days	120	120
4-10 days	10	54
More than 10 days	0	0