McLean County Times

Prairie Central Community Unit School District 8 reported 99 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 99 students during the year. This equates to six percent of the 1,723 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for four incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 21 incidents with violence without physical injury, seven 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 60. There were nine incidents of violence without injury. For 46 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 66 suspensions, while 33 girls were suspended.

There were 68 elementary or middle school students, and 31 high school students suspended in 2021-22 school year.

The district reported that most out-of-school suspensions were given for violence without injury, of which there were 12. There were six incidents of unspecified reasons. 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	0	4
Violence without injury	9	12
Drug offenses	0	1
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	0
Tobacco	4	3
Other reason	60	6
Total	73	26

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	12	0
1-2 days	46	5
2-3 days	7	4
3-4 days	7	13
4-10 days	1	4
More than 10 days	0	0