South Cook News

Ridgeland School District 122 reported 201 suspensions or expulsions for the 2021-22 school year, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

The district removed one student to alternative settings instead of suspending or expelling them. This equates to less than one percent of the 2,300 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 62 incidents with violence without physical injury, 10 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, three incidents with drugs.

The district reported that most in-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 86. There were 25 incidents of violence without injury. For 93 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 147 suspensions, while 54 girls were suspended.

There were 201 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 40. There were 37 incidents of violence without injury. For 34 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	0
Violence without injury	25	37
Drug offenses	0	3
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	0
Tobacco	1	9
Other reason	86	40
Total	112	89

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	8	1
1-2 days	93	34
2-3 days	11	29
3-4 days	0	14
4-10 days	0	11
More than 10 days	0	0