Macon Reporter

Meridian Community Unit School District 15 reported 146 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 146 students during the year. This equates to 16 percent of the 934 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 11 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, four incidents with drugs.

The district reported that most in-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 79. There were eight incidents of tobacco. For 46 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 116 suspensions, while 30 girls were suspended.

There were 126 elementary or middle school students, and 20 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 52. There were four incidents of drug offense. For 23 incidents, students were suspended for two to three 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	1
Violence with injury	0	0
Violence without injury	0	0
Drug offenses	0	4
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	0
Tobacco	8	2
Other reason	79	52
Total	87	59

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	30	2
1-2 days	46	22
2-3 days	11	23
3-4 days	0	9
4-10 days	0	3
More than 10 days	0	0