Will County Gazette

Reed Custer Community Unit School District 255U reported 164 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 164 students during the year. This equates to 13 percent of the 1,298 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for five incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 17 incidents with violence without physical injury, 45 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 14 incidents with drugs.

The district reported that most in-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 64. There were 44 incidents of tobacco. For 76 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 124 suspensions, while 40 girls were suspended.

There were 68 elementary or middle school students, and 96 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 19. There were 13 incidents of drug offense. For 20 incidents, students were suspended for two to three 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	3	2
Violence without injury	7	10
Drug offenses	1	13
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	0
Tobacco	44	1
Other reason	64	19
Total	119	45

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	15	0
1-2 days	76	10
2-3 days	18	20
3-4 days	10	8
4-10 days	0	7
More than 10 days	0	0