Rock Island Today

Mercer County School District 404 reported 75 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 75 students during the year. This equates to six percent of the 1,255 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for one incident with violence that caused physical injury, 17 incidents with violence without physical injury, 22 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, four incidents with drugs, two 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 21. There were 20 incidents of tobacco. For 31 incidents, students were suspended for three to four days.

Boy students received 66 suspensions, while nine girls were suspended.

There were 39 elementary or middle school students, and 36 high 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 10. There were eight incidents of unspecified reasons. For 13 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	1	1
Violence with injury	0	1
Violence without injury	7	10
Drug offenses	0	4
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	2
Tobacco	20	0
Other reason	21	8
Total	49	26

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	0	0
1-2 days	12	13
2-3 days	6	2
3-4 days	31	2
4-10 days	0	9
More than 10 days	0	0