South Cook News

Oak Lawn-Hometown School District 123 reported 217 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 217 students during the year. This equates to seven percent of the 3,277 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for two incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 101 incidents with violence without physical injury, 14 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, three incidents with drugs, one incident witha dangerous weapon firearm,six 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 68. There were 64 incidents of violence without injury. For 106 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 175 suspensions, while 42 girls were suspended.

There were 217 elementary or middle school students suspended in 2021-22 school year.

The district reported that most out-of-school suspensions were given for violence without injury, of which there were 37. There were 22 incidents of unspecified reasons. For 35 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	64	37
Drug offenses	0	3
Firearm	0	1
Other dangerous weapons	0	6
Tobacco	6	8
Other reason	68	22
Total	139	78

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	9	0
1-2 days	106	35
2-3 days	23	18
3-4 days	1	5
4-10 days	0	20
More than 10 days	0	0