Carbondale Reporter

Murphysboro Community Unit School District 186 reported 841 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 841 students during the year. This equates to 44 percent of the 1,906 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for one incident with violence that caused physical injury, 193 incidents with violence without physical injury, five incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 11 incidents with drugs, six 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 526. There were 45 incidents of violence without injury. For 318 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 534 suspensions, while 307 girls were suspended.

There were 185 elementary or middle school students, and 656 high school students suspended in 2021-22 school year.

The district reported that most out-of-school suspensions were given for violence without injury, of which there were 148. There were 99 incidents of unspecified reasons. For 110 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	1
Violence without injury	45	148
Drug offenses	0	11
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	1	5
Tobacco	4	1
Other reason	526	99
Total	576	265

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	186	20
1-2 days	318	110
2-3 days	62	22
3-4 days	7	71
4-10 days	3	42
More than 10 days	0	0