Chambana Sun

Bement Community Unit School District 5 reported 27 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 27 students during the year. This equates to 10 percent of the 284 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for two incidents with violence that caused physical injury, one incident with violence without physical injury, four incidents with alcohol and tobacco.

The district reported that most in-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 16. There were two incidents of tobacco. For 19 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 20 suspensions, while seven girls were suspended.

There were nine elementary or middle school students, and 18 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 four. There were two incidents of tobacco. For eight 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	1	1
Violence without injury	0	1
Drug offenses	0	0
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	0
Tobacco	2	2
Other reason	16	4
Total	19	8

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	0	0
1-2 days	19	8
2-3 days	0	0
3-4 days	0	0
4-10 days	0	0
More than 10 days	0	0