# Odd policies your school system had **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 26, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637 "2009-12-26T17:53:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/81 "2010-02-25T15:28:48Z")
> [@brad\_d](#): > > I graduated from high school in 1989 in Texas (suburban Dallas-Fort Worth). > > Boys were not allowed to wear shorts to school - period. It became so ingrained that it really felt weird when I went to college - being allowed to wear shorts to class was quite a novelty! > > Girls may not have been able to wear short pants, either - I don’t recall - but they could wear skirts of some unrecalled minimum length. I also went to high school in suburban Dallas at the same time you did. Girls weren’t allowed to wear shorts, either, but I _think_ we could wear capri-length pants. They definitely had to be longer than shorts. ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/82 "2010-02-25T22:37:59Z")
> [@Enuma\_Elish](#): > > My high school had a Dean of Students. It was a Prep school where the students lived in dorms (because they came from all over the country). I suspect most Prep schools have Deans while most public schools have principals. Fair enough, I never attended a private/prep school in the US, so I wouldn’t know. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/83 "2010-02-25T23:09:55Z")
No shorts. Then, only “walking shorts” that came no higher than two inches above the knee. Then no shorts again. ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/84 "2010-02-26T02:15:23Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > We had a strict ‘no-hat’ rule too, I have no idea why. I think it was the in thing to do in the 90’s. We also had a no hat rule, and a ‘no coats inside the building’ rule. After Columbine, we had to carry our school IDs at all times during the school day, and they wouldn’t let you buy lunch without it. This was supposed to be a safety measure of some sort. This wasn’t a policy, but once the school had the young children sell tongue depressors with the school name printed on it as a way to raise money for a new playground. I guess this was an easy way of letting us feel we were helping out, without actually selling a real product. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/85 "2010-02-26T02:29:56Z")
Another Catholic School Survivor here. We had segregated playgrounds in elementary school ( 1-8th grade. The entire public school thing still messes me up.) Boys in the front parking lot. Girls in the back parking lot. I’ve shared this with many people and I’ve gotten the strangest looks. Look, we didn’t know any better. If you got into trouble in elementary school, it wasn’t called Detention. It was called “Jug”. I have no idea why. I got Jug once. Can’t recall my offenses against humanity, but I spent a Saturday morning in the winter outside with all the other Criminal students and we were suppose to shovel the snow or something. Ended up having a snowball fight over a four lane road. High School they decided to not have church, which was in our gym, be mandatory one Friday. Having to attend church twice a week was a total drag. So this was a real thrill. About 5 kids went. The rest were in the cafeteria, hanging out. After that, it was mandatory. /Jug ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/86 "2010-02-26T02:31:20Z")
> [@LH75](#): > > My senior year of Catholic high school (1970-71) Sister Mary Corona decided that she wanted to use a contemporary novel for English class. She chose Mario Puzo’s The Godfather. I am sure she did not read the novel before ordering one for each and every senior. In the first class we were taking turns reading aloud. the third or fourth reader got to the portion of the first chapter featuring Sonny Corleone having wild monkey sex with Lucy Mancini against a door. > > I have to admit that the nun carried on, and we read the whole novel. This.is.awesome! Sr. Mary Corona. They don’t make nun names like that no more. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/87 "2010-02-26T02:34:29Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Oh, and now I found out from my cousin that my school no longer lets you carry a backpack. I could see that between classes, now that every classroom has its own set of books. (Although I’d hate not being able to get my homework done while I’m waiting on the teacher in my next class to finish telling us stuff we’ve already learned.) But they can’t even bring them to school. So you have to figure out other ways to carry anything. How about a red wagon? ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/88 "2010-02-26T02:42:37Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > Also, like many other school districts in Illinois, we got a day off the first Monday each March. The occasion was [Count Casimir Pulaski](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazimierz_Pu%C5%82aski) Day. I’ve never heard of Count Casimir Pulaski until now. Sounds like a hellova guy. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/89 "2010-02-26T03:07:00Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > We had a school superintendent fresh from Georgia that once called in a snow day for 4" of snow. Why’s this weird? Because I lived in a ski-town that gets 360 inches of snow a year. Yea. After that, there were never any snow days ever ever again. Even with 5’ drifts blocking the roads and not even plowed yet. Well, MY high school got itself a principal all the way from Alaska, who didn’t believe in sissy snow days for a place with a piddling average of 158 inches of snow a year. Whenever we got walloped by a snowstorm, the morning news would run an alphabetical list of schools closed, from 5 a.m. 5:30 a.m., 6 a.m., 6:30 a.m. - more names added, and at 7 a.m. EVERY SCHOOL WAS CLOSED, except the one lousy holdout who stubbornly felt 2" of snow falling per hour, for 6 hours, was nothing compared to the wilds of Alaska. After enough irate students, rather, parents of students protested loudly, she was made to see the error of her ways. ---
**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/90 "2010-02-26T05:29:42Z")
Ah, the JUG! Judgment Under God or Justice Under God, in Catholic-school parlance. Usually given for things like having your shirt untucked or shoes with a heel. ---
**Author:** ![Caveat\_lector\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@Caveat\_lector\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caveat_lector_1)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/91 "2010-02-26T06:16:23Z")
Is the G in JUG for God? I always thought it was guard. I went to a quasi-military high school and if you screwed up in regular way you’d get points and detention, but if you screwed up in JROTC you’d get demerits and JUG. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/92 "2010-02-26T08:08:03Z")
> [@Omega\_Glory](#): > > After Columbine, we had to carry our school IDs at all times during the school day, and they wouldn’t let you buy lunch without it. This was supposed to be a safety measure of some sort. There was rumors that this would happen at our school, that student IDs would have to be out and on your person. IIRC, the teachers already had to follow this rule. I so wanted this to happen. I thought about what I would have done; I would have bought a dog collar, attached my ID to the collar, and wear the collar as intended. I’m the type of person where I would have no problems doing something like that, especially if it would have sent a message. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/93 "2010-02-26T08:40:36Z")
> [@Caveat\_lector\_1](#): > > Is the G in JUG for God? I always thought it was guard. I went to a quasi-military high school and if you screwed up in regular way you’d get points and detention, but if you screwed up in JROTC you’d get demerits and JUG. I remember JUG from Powers’ DO BLACK PATENT LEATHER SHOES REALLY REFLECT UP? !!! Does anybody read that anymore? ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/94 "2010-02-26T08:56:12Z")
That would have gone over as well as the time I wore a tie as a loincloth in protest of having to wear said tie. Then again I was also wearing my pants, so the impact was probably not as strong as I wanted. ---
**Author:** ![Wisp00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/977dab/32.png) [@Wisp00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wisp00)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/95 "2010-02-28T10:33:58Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > We could not play cards at Lunch. Despite that, we got a few games of Magic the Gathering in, anyway. Apparently, all cards mean gambling, even if they don’t have Bicycles on them. 😕 (High) I worked at an elementary school with the no card games rule. The reason is that if you play for keeps (which really is gambling, anyway, so your school’s reasoning stands), someone will inevitably get upset about losing, or accuse the other of cheating, or go home and cry about it so that the parents come in all upset because little Johnny wasn’t supposed to bring in his expensive card collection full of super rare cards in the first place and demand they get it back somehow. OR even if you don’t play for keeps, the cards themselves are so desirable, and so small, that they get stolen or lost too easily, and mixed up with other kids cards to the point where they can’t remember which are theirs, or prove who owns it when two kids claim it. For all these reasons, it is SO much easier to avoid this drama which has no place in a school anyway, and just ban all cards outright. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/96 "2010-02-28T12:08:46Z")
> [@Wisp00](#): > > I worked at an elementary school with the no card games rule. The reason is that if you play for keeps (which really is gambling, anyway, so your school’s reasoning stands), someone will inevitably get upset about losing, or accuse the other of cheating, or go home and cry about it so that the parents come in all upset because little Johnny wasn’t supposed to bring in his expensive card collection full of super rare cards in the first place and demand they get it back somehow. > > OR even if you don’t play for keeps, the cards themselves are so desirable, and so small, that they get stolen or lost too easily, and mixed up with other kids cards to the point where they can’t remember which are theirs, or prove who owns it when two kids claim it. > > For all these reasons, it is SO much easier to avoid this drama which has no place in a school anyway, and just ban all cards outright. The only game I can think of, that “played for keeps” was Magic, and that practice ended long before I entered the game, around 98 or so. It is sad to me, that the knee jerk reaction is “gambling” over a vehicle for education. Any game improves thinking, and card games, Magic most of all, uses vocabulary that that one will not encounter in everyday life. You can’t have 10,000 different cards that are, for the majority, thematically stuck in the Middle Ages, and not get into obscure words. To say nothing of the words the rules themselves bring up. I’ve only collected and played Magic and Pokemon. Pokemon is it’s own breed. Yugioh even more. What I have played of Pokemon, and have seen of Yugioh, I would suggest my general argument exists there as well, but I do not know the game(s) well enough to argue for them. Personal feelings for how inferior the game mechanics are aside. * * * Would the standard 52 card 4 suit deck be allowed? ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/97 "2010-02-28T13:13:48Z")
My high school (40 years ago) had a designated smoking area for the students. Probably made sense since quite a few smoked and they might as well do it in one area. But try doing that today. My senior year they cut lunch period from 75 to 30 minutes because some dual-low income parents were complaining their kids were coming home during lunch and having sex. My sophomore year ended with the last period being a study hall. It may have made sense but few kids after spending all day in school want to do their homework immediately. Better go home, play while it’s still light, have dinner and then do the math problems, history reading, etc. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/98 "2010-02-28T18:37:22Z")
My first daily teacher duty here in S. GA was morning smoking duty. For six months in '84-'85, I hung out with the kids in the smoking area from 7:45- 8:10. As soon as the 3:10 pm bell rang, every teacher down my hall stepped into the hall and lit up a cigarette (me included). We couldn’t smoke in class, but this was the science wing where we had lots of connecting storage/office spaces between our rooms. I definitely remember telling kids not to make me put out my smoke and come back in there! The no hats inside thing was enforced then and now. It was harder to enforce at the school I mentioned previously because all the rooms opened to courtyards. Hats outside in the “hall”, OK- hats off in the room. ---
**Author:** ![Wisp00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/977dab/32.png) [@Wisp00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wisp00)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/99 "2010-02-28T23:22:46Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > The only game I can think of, that “played for keeps” was Magic, and that practice ended long before I entered the game, around 98 or so. > > It is sad to me, that the knee jerk reaction is “gambling” over a vehicle for education. Any game improves thinking, and card games, Magic most of all, uses vocabulary that that one will not encounter in everyday life. You can’t have 10,000 different cards that are, for the majority, thematically stuck in the Middle Ages, and not get into obscure words. To say nothing of the words the rules themselves bring up. > > I’ve only collected and played Magic and Pokemon. > > Pokemon is it’s own breed. Yugioh even more. > > What I have played of Pokemon, and have seen of Yugioh, I would suggest my general argument exists there as well, but I do not know the game(s) well enough to argue for them. Personal feelings for how inferior the game mechanics are aside. > > * * * > > Would the standard 52 card 4 suit deck be allowed? Well, in my case at least, I don’t think the knee jerk reaction was “gambling”, I think the reasonable reaction was it created too much trouble that the teachers then had to deal with, taking away learning time. Kids don’t need to be bringing toys to school anyway, for most of the same reasons, and certainly should not be bringing valuable things that can be easily stolen or lost. I’m sure they do provide logic, math, and vocabulary learning opportunities, but no one was discouraged from playing them at all, just from bringing the cards to school. The kids who were into it were playing it at home, anyway. Perhaps you felt that, as high school students, you’d be better able to handle it. That may be true, I don’t know. Maybe it became a district wide policy, maybe the administrators didn’t understand, maybe there had been problems in the past. Yes, a standard 52 card deck would have been allowed, but those are a set, if you get them mixed up with another kid’s, it’s easy to sort them out again, and it’s unlikely another kids gonna steal your ace of spades because it’s the best card in the deck. Obviously, students weren’t allowed to gamble with them, but I’ve never known that to be a problem with the little kids, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637/100 "2010-03-01T00:34:19Z")
My elementary school, kindergarten to grade 8 required all the pupils to line up in class room specific queues outside prior to the start of classes, after lunch and recesses. Once we were given the go ahead by the principal we would march into the class room in orderly files. Unless the weather was severe, we were required to play outside during non class time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-policies-your-school-system-had/522637.md?page=6)