Galesburg Reporter

Knoxville Community Unit School District 202 reported 45 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 45 students during the year. This equates to five percent of the 984 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 13 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, four incidents with violence without physical injury, nine incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 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 six. There was one incident of tobacco. For six incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 32 suspensions, while 13 girls were suspended.

There were 14 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 with injury, of which there were 13. There were 11 incidents of unspecified reasons. For 14 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	0	13
Violence without injury	0	4
Drug offenses	0	0
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	2
Tobacco	1	8
Other reason	6	11
Total	7	38

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	0	2
1-2 days	6	11
2-3 days	1	14
3-4 days	0	5
4-10 days	0	6
More than 10 days	0	0