SE Illinois News

Gallatin Community Unit School District 7 reported 131 suspensions or expulsions for the 2021-22 school year, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

The district removed two students to alternative settings instead of suspending or expelling them. This equates to less than one percent of the 710 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 13 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, six incidents with violence without physical injury, 28 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, one incident 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 52. There were seven incidents of violence with injury. For 26 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 106 suspensions, while 25 girls were suspended.

There were 99 elementary or middle school students, and 32 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 31. There were 23 incidents of tobacco. For 36 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	0
Violence with injury	7	6
Violence without injury	1	5
Drug offenses	0	0
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	1
Tobacco	5	23
Other reason	52	31
Total	65	66

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	14	0
1-2 days	26	36
2-3 days	13	21
3-4 days	10	5
4-10 days	2	4
More than 10 days	0	0