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People Describe The Most Bizarre Rule Enforced At Their School

People Describe The Most Bizarre Rule Enforced At Their School
Photo by MChe Lee on Unsplash

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.

GobbleGobbleDotCom

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)

BigFatManiacPrat

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.

laporkra

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

kcvngs76131

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.

daystooshort

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.

HDMemes

I wonder who it was, HDMemes

WASD-ESL

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.

BananerRammer

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.

valsday

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.

G01ngDutch

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.

MistakeNot___

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.

ShreddedKnees

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.

Esoteric_Erric

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.

RedSky764

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.

SillyBlackSheep

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.

Alone-Blueberry

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 -.-

kenkenmeowmeow

People Break Down The Missing Person Cases That Just Don't Add Up

Reddit user yourlastnames asked: 'what missing persons case is the most confusing / doesn’t add up?'

Content warning: suicide.

There are truly some strange unsolved cases out there, but there's nothing quite like hearing of a person who has vanished as if out of thin air.

While some of these cases have been explained away or even solved, there are some that remain a mystery that truly does not add up, no matter how the puzzle pieces fall.

Curious about these cases, in particular, Redditor yourlastnames asked:

"What missing persons case is the most confusing [to you] or just doesn't add up?"

The Last Ride of Terrance Williams

"Terrance Williams disappeared in 2004. He's the subject of a fascinating podcast called 'The Last Ride.'"

"The short version is that he was taken into custody in Naples, Florida, after being pulled over in the early hours for traffic violations. He was never seen again."

"The deputy that pulled him over tried to conceal the traffic stop even from his own organization, but staff opening a local business saw the whole thing."

"When the sheriff's department finally looked into it, they discovered the deputy was involved in a similar disappearance of a man named Felipe Santos in 2003. To this day the deputy claims no knowledge of Williams's whereabouts, despite being caught out in a series of lies."

- AlanMercer

Paddy Moriarty and Kellie

"Paddy Moriarty and his dog, Kellie. They went missing in an outback town in Australia with a population of 12 people."

"They were last seen leaving the pub riding his quad bike the one-kilometer distance to his house. He or his dog have never been found and no one has been charged in relation to his disappearance."

- Bigred0762

Susan Powell and Family

"Susan Powell went missing from her home in West Valley, Utah, on December 6, 2009."

"She is presumably dead. Her husband, Josh, was the main suspect and just a real piece of work. No one knows what really happened to her."

"Sadly in 2012, Josh murdered their kids and committed suicide after Susan’s parents gained custody of the kids."

- AlexisVonTrappe

"This case is so frustrating since his brother and father are both dead too. We’ll never know what happened to Susan, but I’m positive she’s in an old mine shaft somewhere. F**k Josh Powell."

- burittosquirrel

​The Last Call from Brandon Swanson

"Brandon Swanson. He drove into a ditch and called his parents for help. They stayed on the phone with him for 47 minutes while they drove around looking for him."

"They heard him say, 'Oh s**t,' and then the phone went silent. They eventually found his car far away from where he said he was but he was never found."

- kittengoesrawr

"Reading this was absolutely chilling. It seems at first glance that it's most likely he drowned, but that really doesn't make sense because the water was only 10 feet deep and they would have found the body."

"He just suddenly said, 'OH S**T!' and the phone went silent, but he did not hang up. The phone call continued with total silence from his end. What the f**k happened to him?"

- angelposts

Babysitter Mar Lou Bostwick

"Mary Lou Bostwick. She disappeared July 18, 1972, from Waverly, New York. She was dropped off by her dad to babysit at a friend's house. This was also her 16th birthday. Her mom stopped by later with a cake and presents."

"The people in the apartment told her that Mary never showed up. However, her bag was in the residence. Nothing else was ever found."

"There was another girl around the same age, Sharon Coston, who was abducted and murdered in a nearby town about a year later. October 1983 in Sayre, Pennsylvania."

"There was a man convicted of that, but he always denied doing anything to Mary. One of the people who testified against him and was given immunity was a suspect in Mary's case. Mary's mom thinks there's a connection, but nothing was ever really found."

"I've sadly never seen anyone cover her disappearance on any of the podcasts or YouTube shows."

- Vamp459

Derek Seehausen of San Diego

​"Derek Seehausen. My friend was dating him at the time of his disappearance, and he was actively planning his future in medicine, and was last seen in San Diego."

"I saw him about two months before he disappeared. Please send any tips."

- Hereforit2022Y

The Beaumont Children

"The Beaumont Children. Three kids go to the beach, are seen with a mystery man, and never make it back home."

"Never found out who the man was or where they went. Their parents just recently died without ever getting any closure."

- snguyenx96

Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes

"Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes. The whole family (parents and four kids) went missing overnight in 2011."

"Employers, schools, and the extended family received weird letters informing of their absence or departure (one of them saying they are going into a witness protection program). Two weeks later they found the corpses of the mother, the kids, and the dog hidden behind the house."

"They investigated and retraced the father’s whereabouts in the south of France. He was last seen leaving a hotel a few days before. The region was thoroughly searched, but he was never to be found."

- z4zazym

Branson Perry of Skidmore

"Branson Perry, aged 20, disappeared from Skidmore, Missouri in April 2001."

"He was working on his house with a friend, went to the shed to grab some power cords, and was never seen again."

- AdamR91

The Incomplete Story of Marshall Iwassa

"Marshall Iwassa. Good guy."

"He came back to his hometown to visit his family and friends, and everything by all accounts was good. He left to take the two-hour drive to where he was living and never made it. Instead, it was recorded he spent the entire night trying to get into his storage unit and then nothing."

"A week or maybe more, his truck was found 12 hours away on a back road in the middle of the woods burnt to a crisp with belongings thrown about everywhere, no sign of Marshal."

"From what I remember, the family was adamant that some of the things inside the truck, burnt or not, were missing, things they knew he had. The truck was even missing parts."

"It's been four years and there's never been answers. It makes me sad and fearful of long travels. From what I know of him, he was a fantastic friend; I hope they get closure one day."

- devbot8

Out Shopping Asha Degree

"Asha Degree."

"She went missing at the age of nine from Shelby, North Carolina, United States. In the early morning hours of February 14, 2000, for reasons unknown, she packed her bookbag, left her family home north of the city, and began walking along nearby North Carolina Highway 18 despite heavy rain and wind."

"Several passing motorists saw her; when one turned around at a point 1.3 miles (2.1 km) from her home and began to approach her, she left the roadside and ran into a wooded area."

"In the morning, her parents discovered her missing from her bedroom. No one has seen her since."

- EstateWeary5789

The Vanishing Marion Barter

"Marion Barter here in Australia."

"She boarded a plane overseas in 1997 and changed her name beforehand (didn't tell family). She apparently came back to Australia for a few days (according to passenger records) and completely disappeared."

"It's an ongoing investigation at the moment, there is a podcast about it called, 'The Lady Vanishes,' featuring her daughter."

"It's so tragically fascinating."

- CuddlySubject

The Grieving Bryce Laspisa

"Bryce Laspisa."

"He was driving to his parents' house (three hours) after an argument with his girlfriend, apparently due to his alcohol and video game addiction and abuse of prescription medication."

"Partway through the drive, he pulled off the highway and just sat there… from 9:00 AM to 3:'00 PM."

"A roadside assistance guy checked on him twice and said he seemed fine and coherent, and Bryce told him he would be carrying on back to his parents shortly."

"Sometime later, his car was found only a few miles away, driven off the embankment, and he was nowhere to be found. They never found him."

- Just_Raisin1124

News Anchor Jodi Huisentruit

"Jodi Huisentruit was a news anchor who disappeared in the early morning in Mason City, Iowa."

"There were signs that she was abducted and the investigation is still ongoing with new leads nearly 30 years later."

- Have_you_eaten_yet

Three-Year-Old William Tyrrell

"William Tyrrell. In 2014, the three-year-old boy went missing from his foster grandmother's yard whilst playing with his sister. His foster mother and foster grandmother were apparently watching them play outside, and the foster mother went inside to make a cup of tea."

"They then noticed they hadn’t seen or heard him in a while and searched the house and yard."

"In 2021, police began searching national parkland near the grandmother's home for human remains. They also revealed that the foster mother and grandmother were persons of interest in his presumed death."

"Earlier today, the foster mother pled not guilty to assaulting another foster child that was in her care (a 10-year-old girl). She has also been charged with intimidating and stalking a minor. Her husband has also been charged with the same crimes, but plead not guilty to all counts. The foster grandmother is now dead."

"Basically, police believe that William died whilst in the care of the foster family, and they disposed of his body to cover it up. Police are recommending that the foster parents be charged with perverting the course of justice and interfering with a corpse."

"His photos went viral at the time of the 'disappearance,' and he went missing whilst in a Spiderman costume, and the photo that was distributed was taken minutes before."

- Red_bug91

These stories are truly haunting, and it's no wonder that Redditors have worried themselves with what might have happened to these missing people.

We can only hope that answers come for at least some of these cases and that their closest loved ones achieve some sense of closure eventually.

If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.

To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/

Senior citizen using a camera
Tiago Muraro/Unsplash

The realization you're getting older can smack you in the face at any given time, and boy-howdy is it fun!

It can be in the morning when you get up out of bed, and your body makes crackling noises, or when you can't seem to keep up at the gym and you cut short your running time on the treadmill.

That's just the physical.

When you suddenly have the epiphany that you're suddenly the oldest one in a group setting, it's humbling.

Curious to hear from strangers online who are no longer the young whipper-snappers they imagined themselves to eternally be, Redditor redmambo_no6 asked:

"Redditors with younger coworkers, what was your 'I’m officially old' moment?"

These moments of realization never get old. But people do.

Senior Kitty

"My childhood cat lived to 21.5 so teaching (freshman biology lab, so students were ~18) became very weird when I realized my cat was older than my students."

– mollusck_magic

Aging In Reverse

"I'm a preschool teacher. It's been a TRIP to watch parents go from Soooo much older than me, to the same age as me, and now they're younger than me!?!?"

– Smart_Alex

The Shook Pediatrician

"My kids pediatrician was also my husband's pediatrician when he was a kid. He was the first kid she had to come back as a parent and she was SHOOK."

– trixtred

Older Together

"See, that's what really kinda drives it home for me."

"I'm not bothered that I'm 48. But that means my school friends are 48, and that's weird for some reason. Like, I went to school with a guy who was wild and crazy. That guy is 48 now, and has a new grandbaby. Somehow, he's old, and I'm just 'getting up there '."

– ThatWeirdTexan

Relics of the past don't just pertain to humans.

Dialing It In

"Had a co-worker ask me, 'Back before cell phones, did you just have to wait around at your house for a call?' Uh, yeah, pretty much."

– Status-Effort-9380

"Reminds me of having to explain the concept of collect calls to my kids. The whole speed speaking where you were for pick up during the recording so your Mama never accepted the collect call."

– DaraScot

Legendary Aircraft

"Various colleagues were debating whether the Concorde had been real. They couldn’t fathom that supersonic civilian aircraft used to exist and now they don’t anymore."

"The Concorde last flew in 2003, when these colleagues were toddlers."

– geckos_are_weirdos

Foreign References

"We were talking about where we were on 9/11, and my coworker went quiet. He wasn’t even born."

"We also had a band that was famous in the 90s stay at the hotel, and he had no idea who they were, meanwhile I was so star struck as they were my entire childhood!"

– Itsagabby

Gravity is not our friend, and not just because of its effect on our faces.

The Day It Went Downhill

"When i fell down the last couple of steps on a stairway. No one pointed and laughed like I expected, instead they helped me up and asked me if I was okay. That’s when I knew."

– day_of_duke

It's About The Recovery

"F'k. That has to be a bummer."

"You fall. You know you're fine. You feel like an idiot. You get ready to wave to the crowd as they laugh and clap. But then... a hand is placed on your arm and you hear 'that was a big fall, are you ok?' You stay in shock for a moment. Of course, you're fine. Everyone is looking at you. They all have concerned faces. Sh*t. Two weeks later, the soreness finally subsides."

– minimalfighting

Ice Slip, You Slip, We All Slip

"This happened to me as well....walking my dog the day after a huge snowstorm. There were some rowdy teenage boys having a snowball fight across the street (schools were closed that day, of course). I slipped on the ice, my feet flew over my head and I landed solidly on my backside. As I struggled to get up I braced myself for the laughter and catcalls, but all I heard was "Are you OK Ma'am??' 'Do you need help??' I was in my early 50s and had never felt 'old' until that moment."

– Ouisch

Conversations with younger coworkers can be fun.

You can quote lines from your favorite TV shows and talk about the latest CD you bought at Target and brag about your new digital camera that takes better pictures than a smartphone.

And then you can watch the blank expressions on your coworkers' faces because they haven't a clue about what you speak.

Yeah. This has never happened to me...

Old.

person getting a tattoo

Collins Lesulie on Unsplash

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But while advancements in tools and inks have opened up endless possibilities for body art, some designs have garnered a bad reputation.

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