Did anyone else feel as though principles and teachers would sometimes ban things and pull rules out of their behinds? Now, don’t get me wrong – some of their rules made sense but most were just ugh…
…well, the following are examples of a few questionable bans.
For more stories, take a look at the original thread source at the end of the article.
“Pagers and hats were banned at my school. It was in the school guide book that being caught on school campus with a pager would result in expulsion from the school. It was believed that pagers were associated with drug sales. The hats were because the teachers couldn’t see the students faces in class.
I went to school in the 90’s.”
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“Pokemon cards and dodgeball , also pink shirts. Pink long shirts were associated with a sub set blood gang called the valentine bloods.”
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“When I was in high school, my school adopted a uniform policy my senior year that required us all to wear one of three colored polo shirts and a pair of khaki pants or shorts.
In the winter time, it would get quite cold in the school and the only long sleeved fleece we could wear was $80 and was a piece of trash that didn’t even come close to keeping you warm.
I refused to buy one and had the brilliant idea that I was going to bring a blanket to school.
I looked through the entire school policy handbook and couldn’t find anything telling me I couldn’t do it so for the entire winter I would just wrap myself in a blanket while in class.
Then, that year I graduated and went back to visit for Christmas break where I was told that because of me they had added blankets to the unacceptable attire portion of the school handbook.”
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“They banned keeping pets in your locker after two hamsters had already died and started to smell.”
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“Headphones were banned because school administrators thought that they encouraged antisocial behavior.”
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“They banned Jolly Ranchers. It got to the point where in my middle school, kids were dealing them like drugs and making money. Still not sure why kids would pay a dollar for a jolly when they can buy a bag of 50 for like 5 bucks.”
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“In my middle school, if we couldn’t see the white board we’d yell enhance and make the odd corresponding hand movement. It got to the point where it was so disruptive the word ‘enhance’ got banned.”
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“My high school with a student body of over 2000 kids got banned from a local McDonald’s temporarily.
My school was in Illinois, three hours away from Chicago. We got banned by McDonalds because a student broke lights and a T.V on a half day.
I don’t know for certain but I’m guessing it was enforced by them not serving people who looked like students around the time school started and ended.”
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“Crocs were banned – literally because our director thought they looked bad.”
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“Snow forts, then snowball forts, then snowballs, then snow altogether.”
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“Walking in groups of more than two and you can guess how long that one lasted.
The rule applied to those year 9 and above (approximately 14+) because supposedly the younger kids (11-14) found it ‘intimidating’ when there were more than two of us walking together.”
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“Hugging as greeting. Apparently things were getting inappropriate (middle school). Instead, we were told to exchange high-fives.”
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“Not my school, but one of my friend’s schools banned secrets. I don’t even want to know how they thought they could enforce that one.”
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“Halo: Combat Evolved.
I downloaded it to all the computers in my library and had a lan party after school when I was a sophomore in high school.
Good times.”
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“Normal shoes were banned. We had to bring special ‘school shoes’ and change them every day.
There wasn’t enough space to store them in school so we had to carry them every day. They had to have white soles, not to leave marks on the floor.”
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“In high school, we were banned from using the word ‘killed’ in gym games, boards games, etc. We had to use ‘gentle’ words like out or eliminated.
When one girl was killed in a car accident, people said the she was eliminated or out. We had a handful of interesting bans like this.
Also, war games were fine as long that we don’t see the actual killing. World of Tanks and War Thunder were fine, but Halo: CE wasn’t.”
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“Using the computers in free Information Technology rooms at lunchtime. Even for work.
When we asked why…
according to I.T, school computers had a clock where they could only be on for a certain amount of time every day, or they they switch themselves off.”
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“Running with your arms behind your back.
The weebs would run around like Naruto during gym, and on a couple occasions, would fall, smack face first into the floor, and have to go to the hospital in an ambulance.
Just for emphasis, this happened more than once.
These were 17-year-old kids getting concussions because they wanted to copy a cartoon character.”
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“In fifth grade they banned Pogs because kids were playing the way you’re supposed to where you take the other kids Pogs when they lose. We had some sore losers I guess.
In first grade they banned slap bracelets because they were basically flexible knives covered with fabric.”
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“Skulls, as in the imagery of skulls on a shirt.
We had some kid who made home made skull necklaces and bracelets and one day he sold it to some kid whose family was Hindu.
The next day his mom comes complaining how only their gods should be able to wear skulls around their neck and so on. It caused a huge headache for the principal and he just ended up banning skulls entirely.”
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“Going to the second floor of one specific building. Officially because there was a threat of the floor collapsing, but I still suspect Dumbledore hid the Philosopher’s Stone there.”
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Points were edited for clarity.