"We will do anything we can to avoid litigation and of course then sometimes you would avoid being controversial to avoid the litigation," he says.

So what can schools do to discipline students and not end up in court?

Some districts try to find out why students are acting out.

"Normally there's an underlying reason for it, either the student might be behind in school or might be having problems at home so we do try to identify the situation," says Terese Carroll, Penn-Harris-Madison Schools.

If a solution can't be reached by identifying the cause of the problem the schools look at other ways to modify behavior.

"Anything from counseling of a student to suspension or expulsion and we're going to make those decisions on a case-by-case basis," says Doug Thorne, Elkhart Community Schools.

Students who continue to be a discipline problem may be asked to leave a public school and go to an alternative school, like "The Crossing" in Elkhart.

"As a high school principal it became very evident that not everybody could learn in a traditional school so there had to be other options," says Staley.

But fortunately, the vast majority of students simply go about the business of learning without causing problems.

"98 percent of the student body I think does a pretty good job of meeting our expectations of appropriate behavior," says Staley.