SE Illinois News

Wabash Community Unit School District 348 reported 354 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 354 students during the year. This equates to 26 percent of the 1,380 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 28 incidents with violence without physical injury, 16 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, one incident 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 275. There were 14 incidents of tobacco. For 205 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 279 suspensions, while 75 girls were suspended.

There were 169 elementary or middle school students, and 185 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 32. There were 19 incidents of violence without injury. For 21 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	0	0
Violence without injury	9	19
Drug offenses	0	1
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	1	1
Tobacco	14	2
Other reason	275	32
Total	299	55

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	2	0
1-2 days	205	21
2-3 days	41	9
3-4 days	38	17
4-10 days	12	7
More than 10 days	1	1