Carbondale Reporter

Johnston City Community Unit School District 1 reported 157 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 157 students during the year. This equates to 15 percent of the 1,036 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 28 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 25 incidents with violence without physical injury, 34 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, two incidents with drugs, 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 63. There were 34 incidents of tobacco. For 81 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 104 suspensions, while 53 girls were suspended.

There were 100 elementary or middle school students, and 57 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 eight. There were six incidents of violence without injury. For 11 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	20	8
Violence without injury	19	6
Drug offenses	1	1
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	1
Tobacco	34	0
Other reason	63	4
Total	137	20

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	0	0
1-2 days	81	4
2-3 days	10	1
3-4 days	37	11
4-10 days	9	4
More than 10 days	0	0