SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Schools in Illinois are facing pressure from multiple fronts to compromise student discipline, and quite possibly school safety.

They were already grappling with a nationwide edict from the Obama administration to lower the number of black student suspensions, even if that means unequal application of school rules.

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Now they also have to deal with a new statute passed by state lawmakers that severely restricts their ability to suspend students beyond three days.

A handful of Illinois districts may have even voluntarily set themselves up to be experimental labs for radical new disciplinary policies.

They have hired the radical Pacific Educational Group (PEG) as a district consultant on racial matters. That company, which believes American education system is tainted with “white privilege,” to the disadvantage of black students.

PEG reportedly helped develop the disastrous “restorative justice” discipline policy in the St. Paul, Minnesota school district, which has lowered suspensions but led to an outbreak of student violence.

Illinois districts that have clients of PEG include Evanston Township High School District, Harlem School District 122, Highland Park High School District, Indian Prairie School District 204, New Trier Township High School, Niles Township High School District, Oak Park River Forest High School, Township High School District 113, Township High School District 214 and Valley View School District 365, according to PJMedia.com.

The federal mandate to lower black student suspensions was the first challenge faced by Illinois school administrators, as well as their peers across the nation.

A memo, jointly released by the federal departments of Justice and Education several years ago, “said even well-intentioned policies are discriminatory if they end up being applied in greater proportion to minority children,” FoxNews.com reported.

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“Schools … violate Federal law when they evenhandedly implement facially neutral policies and practices that, although not adopted with the intent to discriminate, nonetheless have an unjustified effect of discriminating against students on the basis of race,” the memo reportedly said.

Districts were warned that failure to comply could result in the loss of federal funding or lawsuits, according to Investors.com.

“As best I can tell, they are telling schools that even if you have policies that are clearly neutral, that are clearly evenhanded, that are clearly designed to create safe environments for students and educators, DOJ still might come down on you like a ton of bricks,” Frederick Hess, director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute, told FoxNews.com.

Now the new state law seemingly puts Illinois schools in an even tighter squeeze.

It allows students to be suspended beyond three days “only in cases where other disciplinary options have been exhausted and the student’s presence would pose a threat or ‘substantially disrupt’ school operations,” according to the Chicago Tribune. “School boards must also state why the suspension or expulsion is in the school’s best interests before imposing the punishment.”

In other words, the law strongly discourages out-of-school suspensions under most circumstances. Several districts around the nation – including St. Paul, Los Angeles, New York and Oklahoma City, just to name a few – have discovered that lowering suspensions leads to a big increase in student violence and unruly behavior.

While state and federal officials don’t intend to eliminate student suspensions, many teachers in all three districts mentioned above say that tends to be the reality.

District officials pressure building principals to cut way down on the number of suspensions, and principals tell teachers to start tolerating behavior that interrupts learning and sometimes compromises safety.

“When you have to discipline a student of color, you know you’re going to be questioned by an administrator, who is going to try to keep that student in class by any means necessary,” Aaron Benner, a former St. Paul teacher and outspoken critic of “restorative justice” discipline, told EAGnews.org. “So you just keep that kid in the classroom and try to keep a safe classroom. There’s no learning being done.”

Teachers are also pressured to alter their teaching materials and techniques, in an effort to modify poor student behavior.

Eric Christianson, the director of student support services at Illinois’ District 50, told the Chicago Tribune “we’re seeing what we can do to reduce the number of suspensions that come out, both by trimming the number of days and giving professional development to teachers to hopefully improve behavior in the first place.”

Some supporters of the new law even blame teachers, their techniques and curriculum for poor student behavior.

“We need to talk about the relevancy of curriculum,” Aaron Ammon, an Urbana City Council member, told the Chicago Tribune. “History and English classes tend to be very white culture-dominated. We need to do more than just talk about Martin Luther King during Black History Month.

“If the curriculum isn’t relevant to a student, why would they pay attention in class? That’s part of why we start seeing behavior issues. The environment our children walk into has as much to do with them rebelling as the policies being written or rewritten do.”

School boards and administrators across Illinois have been scrambling to rewrite policies to comply with the new law, which goes into effect in the 2016-17 school year.

Some school officials don’t appreciate the position they’ve been put in.

“No educator wants to suspend or expel kids. We all know they’re better off in school. But to try to set up legislation that restricts administrators’ control, that’s never a good thing,” John Hutton, superintendent of Illinois’ Gurnee School District 56,’ told the Chicago Tribune.

“When we have children that have more and more problems they bring to school each day, we need as many tools as we can and don’t need to be restricted in how we use those tools to keep schools safe.

“I just wish legislators would quit meddling in things they don’t know anything about,”

During the legislative debate over the law, Joel Hood, a spokesman for Chicago Public Schools, told the Chicago Tribune that it would “place strict limitations on administrators’ ability to manage school safety and could potentially interfere with law enforcement’s jurisdiction and ability to enforce safety on school grounds or at school-sponsored events.”

In a story about the new Illinois law, Investors.com wrote, “On Monday, Republican Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner signed into law a statewide measure ending ‘zero tolerance’ suspensions and expulsions. It also requires schools to try touchy-feely alternatives, such as ‘restorative justice,’ to kicking bad kids out of classrooms.

“…It’s a shame black students tend to have to spend more time outside the classroom than other students for infractions. But teachers have a right to demand a safe working environment. And more and more unions are backing them up.

“Though well-intended, the anti-discipline trend will lead only to more good teachers fleeing inner-city schools and more minority kids failing to get the education they deserve.”