SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Senate advanced a plan Thursday that would ensure students who commit sexually violent crimes can be expelled from school.

The chamber voted 48-3, with two voting present, to pass Senate Bill 939 sponsored by state Sen. Steve McClure, R-Springfield, which would require students who initiate sexual assault to be expelled for at least one year, or at least six months for initiating nonconsensual sexual acts. The bill would apply to incidents that happen at school, school property such as buses, and school-related events.

The bill was filed last year after an incident in Taylorville where a 10-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by a 14-year-old male student on the bus, who then chased the girl from the bus stop and raped her, according to the girl’s mother. She obtained an order of protection, and the student was removed from the school for the rest of the semester but later returned.

The girl’s family sued the Taylorville School District and bus company last year over violations of federal Title IX rights, negligence and emotional distress.

“This bill is really important because it’s going to be needed and it’s going to help survivors of sexual violence who are having a hard time as it is after one of these situations, let alone having to go to school and see the person who did that to you right there all the time,” McClure said.

He said similar incidents have happened in other districts, including an assault on a 4-year-old girl by a 15-year-old boy in western Illinois. The issue, McClure said, is that state law lacks clear guidelines on what schools should do with sexual assault situations.

“Most schools do the right thing, but in a lot of cases I continue hearing about, the school is not doing the right thing and that is why this bill is necessary,” McClure said.

According to the bill, students may be removed from their school but would still be eligible to attend alternative learning centers. Superintendents would also have power to modify punishments on a case-by-case basis and must consider a student’s ability to understand their actions. And any disability they might have would also have to be considered when schools assess what direction to go with the situation.

“We want both sides to get help here, and we want to get the student on the right path,” McClure said.

Opposition to the bill

Democratic state Sens. Mike Simmons, D-Chicago, Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet, and Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, voted against the bill.

“Right now, schools are allowed to expel students,” Villa said. “In fact in this case that was talked about that drove this legislation, the child did end up getting expelled. There’s no need to continue to find punitive ways to attack our children. Instead, let’s take the cases case-by-case. There’s no need for this bill.”

Ventura said she is concerned two consenting students could get caught up in the law.

“My concern with the bill is by mandating school boards automatically expel students not because of the situation but because of fear of not following a state mandate,” Ventura said.

McClure responded only nonconsensual incidents would be punished under the bill and that his legislation only adds a type of scenario where a student could be expelled and does not change any other parts of state law that govern expulsion processes. Accused students would still be entitled to a hearing.

The bill now heads to the House, where state Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Murrayville, sponsored a similar measure earlier this spring that was unanimously advanced out of committee, but did not receive a vote in the chamber before an April deadline.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.