In my sophomore year of high school, our old principal got a promotion to the district office. He was replaced by someone who had literally just moved to the area, and knew next to nothing of the well established culture of our small town. After a few weeks, he noticed a "problem" around the campus. He saw many people wearing purple and gold in copious amounts and in ridiculous ways every Friday, and he was sure it had to be related to gang involvement. Rather than ask anyone about it, he called an "emergency assembly" in which he lectured us all about the seriousness of this issue. He informed us that, from that point on, if anyone were to wear either of these colors at school, they would be put in detention for the remainder of the day, and their parent or gaurdian would have to come to pick them up.

People laughed and rebelled, wearing more purple and gold on more days, and the detention room was overflowing almost every day.

2 months later, he found out that purple and gold were our school colors. People were dressing up like that on Fridays to show support and pride for whatever sports team had a game that day, as was the tradition of our town for the past 60 years or so. To show how stupid he felt, he called another emergency assembly to apologize, to which he wore a purple and gold clown suit and a dunce cap.

So Reddit, what dumb rules have you been told to follow?