Will County Gazette

Crete-Monee Community Unit School District 201-U reported 1,516 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 1516 students during the year. This equates to 35 percent of the 4,290 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 51 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 33 incidents with drugs, 21 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 902. There were 39 incidents of tobacco. For 814 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 1,025 suspensions, while 488 girls were suspended.

There were 873 elementary or middle school students, and 643 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 509. There were 19 incidents of drug offense. For 189 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	2	4
Violence with injury	0	0
Violence without injury	0	0
Drug offenses	14	19
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	10	11
Tobacco	39	6
Other reason	902	509
Total	967	549

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	41	4
1-2 days	814	189
2-3 days	100	136
3-4 days	10	141
4-10 days	2	79
More than 10 days	0	0