Southern Illinois News

Meridian Community Unit School District 101 reported 163 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 163 students during the year. This equates to 38 percent of the 429 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 25 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 26 incidents with violence without physical injury, one incident with alcohol and tobacco, three incidents with drugs.

The district reported that most in-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 93. There were 16 incidents of violence without injury. For 53 incidents, students were suspended for two to three days.

Boy students received 105 suspensions, while 58 girls were suspended.

There were 163 elementary or middle 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 15. There were 14 incidents of violence with injury. For 13 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	0	0
Violence with injury	11	14
Violence without injury	16	10
Drug offenses	0	3
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	0
Tobacco	0	1
Other reason	93	15
Total	120	43

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	13	3
1-2 days	37	7
2-3 days	53	10
3-4 days	8	13
4-10 days	9	10
More than 10 days	0	0