McLean County Times

Olympia Community Unit School District 16 reported 122 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 122 students during the year. This equates to seven percent of the 1,706 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for seven incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 10 incidents with violence without physical injury, 18 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, two incidents with drugs, two 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 69. There were 18 incidents of tobacco. For 64 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 104 suspensions, while 18 girls were suspended.

There were 69 elementary or middle school students, and 53 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 14. There were six incidents of violence with injury. For 10 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	1	6
Violence without injury	9	1
Drug offenses	0	2
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	2
Tobacco	18	0
Other reason	69	14
Total	97	25

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	18	1
1-2 days	64	6
2-3 days	13	3
3-4 days	0	10
4-10 days	2	5
More than 10 days	0	0