West Central Reporter

Virginia Community Unit School District 64 reported 58 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 58 students during the year. This equates to 18 percent of the 314 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for three incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 11 incidents with violence without physical injury, 23 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, two incidents with drugs.

The district reported that most in-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 17. There were 12 incidents of tobacco. For 27 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 36 suspensions, while 22 girls were suspended.

There were 33 elementary or middle school students, and 25 high school students suspended in 2021-22 school year.

The district reported that most out-of-school suspensions were given for tobacco, of which there were 11. There were two incidents of violence without injury. For 15 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	2	1
Violence without injury	9	2
Drug offenses	2	0
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	0
Tobacco	12	11
Other reason	17	2
Total	42	16

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	13	1
1-2 days	27	15
2-3 days	2	0
3-4 days	0	0
4-10 days	0	0
More than 10 days	0	0