School | Life | 90s




Do you ever wonder if it was just a crazy power trip? Were they just doing it because they could or was there actually a valid reason to their rules? The problem is, it's been far too many years now and yet for some reason, we're still pissed off about it.

These were some of the most difficult rules to deal with:

1. No hats in class

So I didn't wear a lot of baseball hats in school, but a lot of the guys in my classes did. They were the cool thing to wear, and if you wanted to fit in you basically were required to hat one glue to your head at all times.

The brim needed a good bend to it, and you probably should be representing the logo of something cool like a sports team or a cool movie on it.

Alex Mack
Alex Mack would have been so madNickelodeon

The teachers at the time HATED hats. I don't know what their issue was, but they all seemed to think that if someone was wearing a hat, they were absolutely not paying attention. They forced everyone to take off hats, and embrace their hat head.

The reasons they gave us had to do with us not paying attention, the teachers being "unable to see our eyes" meaning that of course we were distracted, or just a dress code violation. They didn't always have to give us a reason, because they were in charge, but I'll always be a little bit annoyed about it.

2. If you're late to class, you miss class

I get that being chronically late for things is annoying, especially if you are the teacher who is interrupted by the students all the time, but you would think that these teachers would want their students to get to learn.

Boy Meets World Mr. Feeny
If only we had Mr. FeenyABC

Some schools, including mine, had a rule that if you were late for class you weren't allowed to attend the class. You had to go to the cafeteria and wait for your next class. It didn't matter if you were at an appointment or missed the bus, if you weren't on time, you weren't getting into class.

If it was the same kid every single time, I guess it makes sense, but wouldn't it make more sense to educate the kids in the school instead of having them sit around waiting?

3. No brightly colored hair

This was a high school rule that was particularly annoying. So you already weren't allowed to wear a hat, but now you also couldn't dye your hair to any color that wasn't absolutely natural because apparently that was distracting.

Now, I don't know about you, but in high school I was looking for anything to express my personality, and colored hair was part of that. When I found out that my purple hair wasn't allowed anymore I was so annoyed.

Gewn Stefani 90s
Sorry Gwen, you're not allowedByrdie

Granted, my school was pretty bad at enforcing their rule so I was pretty lucky. The seemed to leave me and my various purple and dark blue colors alone, but people who dyed their hair brighter pinks and reds were  constantly getting lectured.

Those aren't the only crazy rules that we had to endure...

4. No tank tops

It doesn't matter if you are on the surface of the sun, because those school administrators want those shoulders covered. Obviously there was nothing in the world more distracting than a shoulder!

You had to have on a t-shirt even though the sweat stains were going to get pretty rancid by the end of the day. It wasn't even just a rule against thin straps, you could couldn't expose the upper portion of your arms.

Saved by the Bell Slater
Sorry Slater, that means you too! NBC

I remember one time when a guy I was friends with dared to come to school in a tank top, and a science teacher yelled at him for having his armpit hair exposed. She told him that he had to put a sweater on, even though it was roughly 90 degrees in the school because we didn't have air conditioning and it was June. When he didn't have a sweater, she made him wear hers.

Don't you think it would be a little bit less distracting to not be sweating bullets in class? And maybe instead of teaching people that it's their fault if people look at them, just teach kids that they shouldn't stare at people?

5. No pen on homework

You weren't allowed to use pens when working on your homework - even if it wasn't being handed in. The teachers wanted us to be able to make mistakes and fix it (or so they said) but honestly I think they just didn't want to try and read all of our colorful pens.

Gel pens were at their peak popularity, and sure, about 80% of them were completely illegible, but they were our notes and homework so what did it matter?

It made sense for the stuff we were handing in, they wanted consistency, sure, I'll accept it. But when it came to our own homework, how would they know? The homework checks would result in us not only getting called out in front of the class, but having to rewrite it all in pencil.

I'm still made about these next ones...

6. No backpacks in class

So my middle school had lockers and they expected us to use them. They didn't want us using our backpacks during the day, but instead wanted us to carry our textbooks, binders, pencil cases, calculators, and projects from classroom to classroom in our arms.

Speaking as a particularly clumsy person, this was a total nightmare. If I had to estimate the number of calculators I broken because they slipped off my binder while I rushed to class I would have to guess at least six.

I don't know if it was a space issue, or if it was a safety issue, but either way it was a royal pain. As soon as I got to high school and realized that I could use our backpacks to carry my stuff everywhere I was so happy.

7. You can't come inside during recess

Here's the thing, I grew up in a town that got VERY cold for many months of the year. It would be below zero regularly but we still had to go outside at recess.

That was our designated outdoor time and it didn't matter if you were freezing cold or boiling hot, because you had to be out in the elements.

The only exception to this was if it was below -28 degrees Celsius or -18 degrees Fahrenheit. Only then would recess be held inside.

Let me tell you, there were a lot of -25 days that were spent huddled in a group with my friends counting down the seconds until we could go back inside.

Those may not be all the rules I can remember, but they were the most ridiculous ones that still stick with me to this day. I'm sure a lot of them have changed since I was in school, but still

Let us know what kind of crazy rules your school had!

H/T - Reddit