McHenry Times

Harvard Community Unit School District 50 reported 303 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 303 students during the year. This equates to 12 percent of the 2,502 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 34 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 40 incidents with violence without physical injury, 32 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, four incidents with drugs, two incidents witha dangerous weapon firearm,four 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 131. There were 20 incidents of violence without injury. For 146 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 215 suspensions, while 88 girls were suspended.

There were 88 elementary or middle school students, and 215 high 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 56. There were 27 incidents of violence with injury. For 42 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	3
Violence with injury	7	27
Violence without injury	20	20
Drug offenses	1	3
Firearm	0	2
Other dangerous weapons	0	4
Tobacco	19	10
Other reason	131	56
Total	178	125

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	20	1
1-2 days	146	42
2-3 days	12	22
3-4 days	0	41
4-10 days	0	19
More than 10 days	0	0