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People Share The Dumbest School Rules They Ever Had To Follow

Schools have rules they need to enforce. This is nothing new, and most of the time, those rules are in place for a good reason.

Still, practically everyone can recall at least one rule their school had that made no sense. Let's revel in the nostalgia of the r/AskReddit thread, "What's the dumbest rule your school ever enforced?". Perhaps you'll recognize your school in one of these comments.

Can't have kids drinking water now, can we?

Unsplash | Daniel Hooper

"I was sent to the principal in elementary school for getting a drink of water out of line (as in we walked down the hall in a formation and we had designated water drinking stops).

"To this day I still remember the principal asking angrily well what if every one started getting water without permission? And I still don’t have an answer."

-u/FriendlyDetective367

Mega late.

Unsplash | Malvestida Magazine

"The new Principal made a 'morning round-up' rule where anyone arriving to class after the last bell had to go to the cafeteria and listen to a lecture about not being late for class.

"This took about an extra 15 minutes, making the students even more late to class than they would have otherwise been. Needless to say, everyone hated it, even the teachers. That principal didn't last long..."

-u/LiveTrash

Must be the same guy who runs the New York Yankees.

"We were not allowed to have facial hair at all.

"Like to the point where the principal would walk around during lunch with razors and shaving cream and do 'Stubble checks.'

"Absolutely ridiculous and he would send tons of us to the bathrooms to shave during lunch, no matter how small the stubble was."

-u/Captainbuttsreads

Welcome to your new home.

Unsplash | Wesley Tingey

"I got Saturday school for missing a day of classes when I was 16. Seems reasonable, except I missed to go complete my US citizenship and officially become a citizen alongside my mom (it took us 12 years to go through the legal process, btw. Whole other issue).

"I had a note from my mother as well as a signed official Federal form they give you to explain to school/employers why you were absent. Apparently the only acceptable absence excuse was illness. I got punished for becoming a citizen."

-u/Lumpy_Constellation

...I don't understand.

"After 9/11, my school instituted a zero tolerance policy on bullying and violence. What 9/11 had to do with bullying, I don't know. Anyways, Halloween 2001, I dressed up as the guy from Clockwork Orange. He carries a cane around.

"The principle pulled me aside, told me walking around with a cane could be a weapon, therefore just walking with it is an act of violence, and suspended me for a couple of days, telling me that after 9/11, 'we don't mess around with that kind of stuff.'"

-u/BlackIsTheSoul

Sounds fun.

Unsplash | Wells Hall

"In grade school, we weren't allowed to play on the playground equipment when it snowed. Eventually, we weren't allowed to play with snow or even go near it- I got in trouble for sitting in snow.

"This was in Minnesota where it snows half the year. Recess basically consisted of milling around the blacktop for thirty minutes."

-u/BW_Bird

NO TOUCHING.

"Went to school during the time where health and safety suddenly started going crazy, they introduced a 'no contact under any circumstances' rule i.e no touching another person, we were like 6 or 7 years old.

"Suddenly one day not only is tag suddenly illegal, but they actually enforced it, I remember one day like 70% of the school's population was pulled off of the playground and made to sit on the floor in the hall, for the crime of just playing the games that children play."

-u/BeverageBeast

Banning a color scheme.

Flickr | Simon Salvator

"No long-hair for boys, No black and red type clothing, example: red undershirt, black over-shirt, black pants red shirt, no Heavy Metal band t-shirts or tapes, anyone drawing pentagrams will be suspended.

"During the Satanic Panic of the 80s."

-u/Russianwinter1398

Washrooms aren't a right, they're a privilege.

"Locked the only boys bathroom because someone wrote on the wall in sharpie. It wasn't even anything rude or inappropriate either. It was just the word 'hi' or something like that.

"Didn't unlock the door until one boy wet himself and parents threatened to sue."

-u/Loseruser1201

Well, that's ominous.

Flickr | samkaran0031

"You had to wear your ID around your neck on a rope thing.

"Then the chokings started."

-u/the-zoidberg

"I have noticed that a lot of the private schools near me that have an ID rule allow a clip or badge reel instead, though it must be worn on your collar for visibility. Much safer."

-u/TheSacredOne

They need to close that loophole.

"If you throw snowballs, you get a one day suspension. The first long weekend after a snowfall everyone would throw snowballs to get an additional day added to the long weekend."

-u/MrFake_Name

"Reminds me of the punishment for cutting school at my high school. Out of school suspension!"

-u/ljr55555

Looks like we're playing by prison rules now.

Unsplash | Deidre Schlabs

"Candy canes were outlawed because you could sharpen them to a point and use them as a shiv.

"I went to school in rural Washington. We were definitely weren’t somewhere that shankings were to be expected."

-u/MisterComrade

Ah yes, that's why people wear wristwatches.

Unsplash | Alex Azabache

"They outlawed bracelets because there was an article in a magazine somewhere saying they advertised what sexual acts you were open for based on their colour.

"Then someone tried to outlaw wristwatches for the same reason."

-u/billbaperky

Happiness is mandatory.

"At my kids' elementary school students had to smile while walking in the hall. The principal would stand in the hallway as classes changed, and she would call out a kid's name if they weren't smiling and would tell them to smile. She yelled a lot, and the kids were afraid of her."

-u/HitchhikingCats

Sounds like airport security.

Unsplash | Charles Deluvio

"Clear liquids only. Some kid brought in gatorade mixed with alcohol of some sort so in effort to combat it afterwards they wanted us to only drink clear liquids out of clear containers. As if vodka and white rum don't exist 🤷"

-u/[deleted]

Big brain time.

"My school had 3 staircases along a very long corridor. we were banned from using the middle staircase because it got overcrowded. the ban was lifted once they realised it only made the other two staircases just as crowded."

-u/bignasttty

Branding 101.

Unsplash | Jannes Jacobs

"Not being allowed to wear hoodies/jackets or sweaters that lacked the official school logo.

"(I was a high school teacher for several years, both buildings I worked in were FREEZING, and having admin pull students out of my classroom during a 50 minute period & giving them detention instead of letting them LEARN is cruel and completely unnessesary [sic], in my opinion)."

-u/Master_Catch_9089

What's up with these hoodie situations?

Unsplash | Eugene Chystiakov

"That if you say/do anything back to your bully it becomes a mutual conflict and isn't bullying, so if they start calling you slurs and making you feel bad every day and you call them stupid once or twice the school probably won't help.

"Also dress code required school branded hoodies... they were 50 dollars. If you wore a non school hoodie you got in school suspension."

-u/wowthatfood

Sounds like a reasonable teacher.

"I was wearing a regulation uniform jacket in a classroom during winter that had no heating. The teacher demanded I remove my jacket and I refused because I was cold. She sent me to the head mistress."

-u/s3rvalen

Only *how* many squares?

Pexels | Markus Spiske

"You can only use 3 squares of TP. I was a precocious 4th grader. I told the teacher the school’s budgetary issues were none of my concern. I was sent to the principals office.

"Later after stewing over the injustice I staged a coup by encouraging other students to ruin toilet paper... then I went to another school."

-u/[deleted]

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