Galesburg Reporter

West Central Community Unit School District 235 reported 216 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 216 students during the year. This equates to 30 percent of the 729 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 10 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, seven incidents with violence without physical injury, 29 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, two incidents with drugs.

The district reported that most in-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 73. There were 10 incidents of tobacco. For 59 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 141 suspensions, while 75 girls were suspended.

There were 157 elementary or middle school students, and 59 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 95. There were 17 incidents of tobacco. For 54 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	0	2
Violence with injury	0	10
Violence without injury	0	7
Drug offenses	0	2
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	0
Tobacco	10	17
Other reason	73	95
Total	83	133

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	12	14
1-2 days	59	54
2-3 days	10	44
3-4 days	2	14
4-10 days	0	7
More than 10 days	0	0