Computer Freezes and Hard Drive goes bad on shut down and re-start

I have MacBooks running Leopard. We have had several so far this school year where it has frozen on the user. The user holds down the power key to shut-down and re-start. On re-start, either it just gets to the solid gray screen or it might show the folder with the question mark. When I boot it up from an install disk and run disk utility...I try to repair the hard drive which often fails, the drive is grayed out, and I try to re-partition which also fails. I then send them in for AppleCare who has replaced the hard drives. I have about 2-3 a week so far and I'm curious why this is happening. We got the laptops in March so they are relatively new. Is it the shut down process? Remedies to help prevent the freeze up (I'm guessing the kids have too many apps running at one time)? other thoughts?

I'm not sure but have you tried getting them to shutdown through the apple menu instead of the power button?

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