Not every rule is current nor should it be followed.
Unfortunately, for the hell of it, some people just enforce clearly archaic and bizarre rules for their own comforts or thrills.
Most of these totalitarians can unfortunately be found in schools, working with kids. These people love to sweep kids away into the principal's office or to detention.
u/ChipFan111 asked:
What was the most bizarre school rule you had in your school?
Here were some of those answers.
Name-Calling
Our handbook stated that you could only address teachers as, "Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss, Dr., or Coach". The 60 year old woman (who was in no way involved with athletics) that taught biology tried to write a referral to one of my friends who insisted on calling her Coach for insubordination. Admin couldn't do anything about it, so they removed Coach from the list of acceptable names and re-issued the handbook.
Continuing Odd Rules
Around my last year of primary school (Brit here), they suddenly added a rule where you can't talk during your lunch. They said it was so we'd have more time to play afterwards, but you'd have to wait to be dismissed first so how long it takes to eat doesn't matter at all
At first everyone was silent apart from a few whispers behind the teachers backs, but then it transitioned into everyone talking quietly. I think the teachers gave in at that point as they said that we can talk as long as it's quiet, then everyone learned to gradually get louder so by the time I left it was back to normal level.
At my prep school I went to for a year after that, we managed to get Rock Paper Scissors banned, it's a long story...
So towards the end of the year I spent at my prep school, my year group was on a coach coming back from a school trip (each year was small enough to fit onto one coach - I think the entire school only had about 100 or so people), where behind me were two classmates were playing Rock Paper Scissors with a twist: if you get Rock you punch the other person, if Paper you slap them and if Scissors you pinch them. This didn't take long to spread around the whole year and eventually the whole school was doing it. It became so popular that in the last couple of weeks, the headteacher made an announcement in an assembly that [forgot what they called this version of Rock Paper Scissors] is banned as it was getting out of hand. I though this was fair enough but a second later the head said that because [said version of Rock Paper Scissors] comes from the original version, it will be banned in its entirety. After that everyone was talking about if they should do Rock Paper Scissors just to see if they get punished (doubt they would though)
Hair Don't Matter For School, Yo
I was told my hair was too long for school in I think it was 6th grade, so I shaved half my head. Was told it was a distracting hairstyle. I asked them to name the hairstyle and got detention. I then shaved the rest which wasn't what they wanted either apparently. I caught hell from a few teachers until it grew out some. Controlling a child's appearance is borderline abuse in my opinion. ESPECIALLY if you aren't their parent or guardian.
Blanket Actions
Two that both happened in high school: No high fives, as administration considered it bullying. They never once explained how, but it was.
They banned any drink that wasn't water or plain milk. They would actually check lunch bags as kids entered to make sure they weren't sneaking anything in. They were especially hard on hot beverages. The years before, high schoolers could have coffee/tea from home, but then they became convinced we were adding sugar to it and banned it. I was getting over laryngitis once and had a travel mug of hot water with honey and lemon like my doctor suggested, and the b*tch of a gym teacher snatched it and dumped it even though I had a doctor's note.
Bonus: we were a K-12 school. They gave 18 year old seniors the same size portions as 6 year old kindergarteners. Aka 3 chicken nuggets and four carrot sticks, then they'd b*tch at the older kids if they brought snacks and stuff to eat
Europeans Don't Have It All Figured Out
You had to finish all the food on your plate. The worst part was that my teacher made me put on foods that I didn't like eating, so I told her that I will get nauseous but she didn't listen. It didn't take long until I got so nauseous that I threw up all over the table.
Memes Forever
Not necessarily a bizarre rule, but in 8th grade my school literally had to remind everyone to only use their google drive for school purposes because some student used over a terabyte of storage for memes.
I wonder who it was, HDMemes
Public Parking Passes, Pshaw!
Off the top of my head, my high school had a rule that you had to register your car with the school if you wanted to drive to school. That wouldn't be totally weird until you consider that my high school was in a very urban area, and only had one small lot that was for faculty only. Students had to park on the street.
So in other words, we had to get a pass from the school in order to park on the public streets.
Chestnuts Forbidden
"Anyone caught with a chestnut gets suspended."
There was a chestnut tree (wild, "horse-chestnut") in the schoolyard, so one of the activities during recess was of course having chestnut wars. When they were in season, as soon as we'd get out, everyone would pick up as many as they found, take cover, and start launching them at each other. We were all often bruised by it but no one was a specific target, so it wasn't bullying. I guess we all saw it as more of a friendly sport. It was the status quo and the school didn't seem to mind much, until someone threw one so hard it cracked the window on a teacher's car. A kid admitted it was him but still, it turned into a big thing and they got strict about not allowing it.
After years and years of not seeing each other, a few months ago (by an unrelated sad circumstance), a handful of us from class got reunited for a lunch and walk about town. Someone mentioned the chestnut incident, and as we talked about it, one of the guys said "It was actually me who cracked that window, I'm sure of it. I threw that chestnut and followed it with laser focus until it hit that car by accident. I knew it was me but no one else did, and then the other kid admitted to it. I never learned why he did, but of course I never complained.
Knee Socks As A Punishment
Just to bear in mind, this was an all-girls grammar school:
Shoes could only be black, brown or navy blue. This also applied to hairbands (hair ties). No trainers (sneakers) or boots.
Socks (white or navy) had to be pulled up at all times.
Write only in fountain pen, pencil is allowed for notes or draft versions. If you make a mistake, cross it through with a ruler and put brackets around it.
You have to 'cover' your exercise books - most people used wrapping paper or sticky-backed plastic.
Paid Vacation
In 11th and 12th grade we had four "get out of jail cards" per half year. You could hand those in after missing up to two days without an excuse.
The problem was that if you were late for more than 45 minutes you had to use one of those. So if I overslept and calculated that I will miss more than 45 minutes I decided that I might as well stay home for a day or two. And I wasn't the only.
Jump Around!
We had a uniform and if you had your jumper (sweater) on you didn't have to wear the tie, but if you took your jumper off you had to wear a tie. Fair enough I guess.
But you had to ask permission from the teacher to take your jumper off and you had to wear your jumper between classes in the hallway. So on a summer's day you would have to ask 7 different teachers if you could take your jumper off, and they could say no. Even if you had a tie. It seems bizarre to me that teacher could tell literal adults (18 year olds) that they couldn't take their jumpers off.
Ye Olde Sexism
We were an all boys Grammar School, Liverpool UK. Next to our school, to the right, was an all girl's school. The powers that be did not want us mingling with the girls. Unless you lived in that direction, you were not allowed to turn right out of our school. You had to have a 'turn right pass' which you had to show to a prefect who was stationed at the school entrance to stop you turning right.
Bok Bok Bok
It isn't so much the rule that's bizarre, but the reason.
About a decade ago, several students worked together to acquire two chickens and tag them, then release them into the school. They went around the campus for most of a day before they were caught.
When they caught one, it was labeled "1". The other was labeled "3".
They spent a solid week asking around local officials if they had seen a chicken labeled "2". They checked the vents, the closets, worked with police, everything.
And thus the rule "No senior pranks allowed" was put into effect.
Forbidden Fruit
There were a few bizarre ones in my school, but this is the one that sticks with me....
In the middle of high school, they passed a rule of, "No black walnuts or pecans." There were a lot of pecan and black walnut trees at the school. Hell, the school planted some of them. So, us doofy teenagers would either throw them at each other, or hoard them in our pockets and crack and eat them in class. They were so strict about it that teachers would interrogate you any time you had a bulging pocket (thinking you were hiding them to eat).
What made it even more bizarre was they said that they were worried about students getting hurt by others throwing the walnuts or the pecans. Most of us laughed about it because our school has a trap shooting team, and one of our biggest fundraisers was a gun auction. Like, tree nuts will somehow hurt you, but students handling and shooting guns won't? That's not even mentioning our show team, where students handle livestock like hogs, cattle, horses, and goats.
Fun Is Prohibited
ABSOLUTELY NO MUSIC DEVICES ON THE BUS. if we went on a field trip, teachers would come around with a trash bag to collect your portable CD player and then give it to you when the trip was over.
U Yell U Cuss U Group 5+ U Out!
At my middle school, a group of 3+ all wearing the same color (regardless of the color) was considered "gang affiliation", and would lead to the group getting dress-coded (having to change into school-branded PE sweats or something, I can't fully remember). My friends and I would all wear a specific color once a week (most of the time it was purple) and would try to get as many other kids to join as possible.
Never got dress-coded... they didn't have enough loner outfits.
I also remember my principal giving me a strict talking-to because I had a white shirt that I was having people sign with sharpie at the end of the year instead of a yearbook. She said it was "inappropriate graffiti". In the 7th grade -.-