I'm not buying it. A competent administrator and dedicated staff can handle the toughest, most undisciplined kids when given license to actually educate instead of just get them through the year. I've seen it done. My brother-in-law was coach, teacher, principle, and then superintendent of various schools with some of the meanest, toughest kids in the state, but there was discipline in his classrooms, on the football field, and in the school. My sister was a career choral instructor who brooked absolutely no disruption in her classes. But that was in the days when the staff could actually control the kids without fear of lawsuits.
And that, in my opinion, is the key. Of course kids of any age should not be abused by staff. But there is zero justification, IMO, that any kid should be allowed to disrupt or hinder the education of the others. If kids make no effort to learn, they should simply be failed for that year. If they won't behave themselves and follow orders in school, they would be sent to detention or suspended or expelled. Let the state build reform schools and assess fees from the parents to support them instead of allowing some students to prevent the others from getting a good education.