North Cook News

Wheeling Community Consolidated School District 21 reported 243 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 243 students during the year. This equates to four percent of the 5,794 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 11 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 36 incidents with violence without physical injury, 22 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 16 incidents with drugs, seven 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 58. There were 25 incidents of violence without injury. For 73 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 164 suspensions, while 79 girls were suspended.

There were 243 elementary or middle 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 93. There were 11 incidents of violence without injury. For 48 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	2	1
Violence with injury	8	3
Violence without injury	25	11
Drug offenses	11	5
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	3	4
Tobacco	14	5
Other reason	58	93
Total	121	122

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	27	2
1-2 days	73	42
2-3 days	15	48
3-4 days	6	23
4-10 days	0	7
More than 10 days	0	0