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KIRKSVILLE, MO. -- In Tuesday’s Facebook Story of the Day, many wanted to know if area schools participate in corporal punishment.

Corporal punishment is defined as the physical force causing pain but not wounds as a mean of discipline.

In the state of Missouri, corporal punishment is legal. However; in the Kirksville R-III School District, corporal punishment is not used as a means of discipline.

According to Superintendent Patrick Williams, even though corporal punishment was part of their policy, they haven’t used it in over 20 years.

“About a year ago, at the suggestion of the Missouri School Board Association, we did remove that as an option for discipline,” Williams said. “In fact, our policy on corporal punishment now reads that no one shall use corporal punishment as a discipline intervention.”

So what kind of disciplinary action does the school take, instead?

“Well we have timeout rooms, in-school suspension and those types of things where students are placed on varying times depending on the age group,” Williams said. “For example in the primary and elementary schools, they have what are called focus rooms so that if there are discipline issues, a student is placed there under supervisor's direction and they work on identifying the causes of behaviors and the responsibilities the student has in correcting that behavior. It becomes more of an educational theme rather than a strict punishment or corporal punishment.”

A total of 19 states across the county allow corporal punishment those include:Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming. In ten of those states including Missouri, there is little recourse should a student be injured. That’s because school personnel carrying out punishment in the course of their official duties are protected from criminal and civil liability, according to The Center for Effective Discipline.