Southern Illinois News

Massac County Unit School District #1 reported 392 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 one student to alternative settings instead of suspending or expelling them. This equates to less than one percent of the 1,818 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 19 incidents with violence without physical injury, 16 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, one incident with drugs.

The district reported that most in-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 295. There were eight incidents of violence without injury. For 291 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 254 suspensions, while 138 girls were suspended.

There were 103 elementary or middle school students, and 289 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 61. There were 16 incidents of tobacco. For 37 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	0	0
Violence without injury	8	11
Drug offenses	0	1
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	0
Tobacco	0	16
Other reason	295	61
Total	303	89

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	3	1
1-2 days	291	37
2-3 days	8	23
3-4 days	1	15
4-10 days	0	13
More than 10 days	0	0