51 People Are Sharing What Annoying New Rule They Had To Follow Thanks To One ‘Stupid’ Person Who Totally Blew It
It only takes one clueless dude or dudette to do something so silly others have to pay for it. You probably remember it from the early school days when the teacher would give the whole class extra homework if that one little daredevil was disturbing the class. No wonder they’d be the least liked person in the entire school, and that’s something you don’t just get rid of easily.
Such cases of group punishment, whether by establishing a new rule or by giving a task, are unsurprisingly a very relatable experience. So we looked at a couple of Reddit threads where people shared their frustration with that one person who made things go downhill for a bunch of people, so scroll down through the stories below. Also, make sure to share your own similar experiences in the comment section below!
#1
When I was in middle school, I used to play MTG or Yugioh with friends during lunch. Some jackass decided it would be fun to grab my cards while I was in the middle of a game, run to the bathroom, and toss them in the toilet. I brought the issue up to the principal. He responded by banning all trading cards.Wow, way to punish the victim.
Image credits: StalinsPerfectHair
Bored Panda reached out to professor Jeffrey Thomas, student engagement leader and lecturer in behavior management at University Of Tasmania to find out more about group punishment, which punishes a group of people for the actions of one or more unidentified culprits. Thomas explained that we see this frequently in the school system where a teacher may require all students to stay in at lunchtime because one student did not follow a class rule.
Sometimes the punishment can be applied to a whole school community, Thomas told us. “For example, not being allowed to go on an excursion because rubbish was left in the yard. It is a technique that has been around ever since schools have existed and is based on the understanding of behaviorism –the idea that you can modify a person’s behavior through the introduction of external factors,” he explained.
#2
My fourth grade teacher allowed us to chew gum in class. He said that if he found evidence of misuse, like sticking it under desktop, he would ban chewing gum. One kid stuck it on a window sill and ruined it for all of us.
Image credits: markko79
#3
We are not allowed to wear trash bags as rain coats since someone forgot to cut arm holes and couldn't catch themselves when they fell down.
Image credits: kelpfrog
In terms of punishment, the professor argues, the external factors are designed to be so unpleasant that the person will not carry out the same behavior in the future. “At an individual level, common classroom punishments could include detentions, cleaning, or missing out on activities that other students enjoy.”
On the other hand, strategies of group punishment are morally and educationally questionable. However, “it is possible to gain short term compliance through the threat of punishment,” Thomas said and added that “in group punishment, the culprit’s actions result in them – and everyone else in the group – being punished.” According to the professor, in this way, students realize that they are the reason for their peers’ punishment and that idea of the associated social harm aims to be the unpleasant external factor that will modify their future behavior.
#4
I work for a company in Massachusetts. We have gps's in our vans now because someone called and asked for a quote to put in a security system in their commerical building. One of our people asked them how they found us (we like to find what ways reach people the best for advertising) and they said they saw one of our company vans........on the strip in Vegas.
Image credits: anon
#5
One of the kids in our school tried to [take his own life] in the bathroom, so all bathroom doors are locked and someone has to walk you to the bathroom. Ruined it for a lot of people.
Image credits: anon
#6
We had a cube farm at work. Many people had things like cup warmers and coffee pots in their cubes. I myself had a coffee grinder and coffee maker. I'd fresh grind the beans and set the timer on my coffee maker, and have fresh coffee waiting for me when I arrived in the morning.Then one guy left a crock pot on when he went home. It smoked out the whole building. Fire department was called, building was evacuated, etc.
Suddenly we were not allowed to have anything other than normal office stuff plugged in.
Image credits: Zorkeldschorken
However, the education system is not the only place where group punishment is used. In a workplace, group (or collective) punishment may look like less flexibility, more accountability or additional restrictions placed on when and how employees can work, Thomas argues.
“The aim, like in schools, is to rely on individual members of the team to pressure the less productive members into being more diligent and therefore more profitable. The problem is that this approach is unlikely to work in the long term for the underperformer, and is probably going to damage the performance of the other team members,” the professor explained.
The way that punishments produce compliance is by making the person afraid of being caught doing the wrong thing. “This leads to either modifying future behavior through shame and guilt – or being better at not being caught!”
#7
My office used to provide coffee for employees, until one woman complained that this "wasn't fair" to employees who didn't drink coffee. She drank Diet Coke, yes even at 8:00 AM, and she said that if they were going to provide coffee they should also provide Diet Coke. They don't provide coffee anymore.
Image credits: ThrowAwy6678
#8
A senior in my high school got the school district's rules and guidelines updated to ban handheld video game devices specifically.He got in a massive argument with a teacher when that teacher took his Game Boy Color from him. She manhandled it, almost broke it, and he cussed her out and got suspended.
When he went to the principal's office to retrieve his GBC, the student insisted there was no rule forbidding the presence of video games on campus. The principal cited a rule about music devices, pagers, and cellphones ("noise making devices") and said it also applied to video games. The student asked to see a her copy of the book of rules and guidelines, saying his copy didn't include the rule about video games. When the principal was unable to even produce a copy of the rulebook, the student openly mocked her.
Video games were officially banned by the beginning of the next year, after he graduated.
That student was me.
Image credits: N_Who
#9
We used to play our own music at the store. Well, someone plays explicit music with customers on the floor. No more music at work.
Image credits: the_vent
However, the result of group punishment may be exactly the opposite. “In a group punishment situation, the unidentified culprit is doing his or her best to not be caught by not taking responsibility for the behavior – which demonstrates that the initial threat of punishment was ineffective at modifying future behavior – and that culprit has no regard for the class or team.”
According to Thomas, the only mechanism left for being an effective strategy is that the group imposes its own punishment on the culprit. “In a school, this might look like social exclusion or even violence (no one likes their lunchtime taken away!) and can lead to a ‘toxic’ work environment,” he added.
#10
I worked for a company that micromanaged the s**t out of its employees. About 8 of us were in a large section together, with individual work stations where we did our jobs, but could see, interact and talk with everyone else. It was a mind numbing job, so socialization is the only way the clock went by faster. If someone was too far away, you’d usually just walk over and talk with them and head back to your work station. As long as we weren’t disruptive, management didn’t care.Well one lady gets hired that couldn’t understand the concept of an “indoor voice” so she would shout at coworkers from across the room. She also liked to take 20-25 minute breaks instead of 15, thinking nobody noticed. Eventually, management got tired of it and changed the rules. We were no longer allowed to leave our work station, even if the place was empty of customers and we now had to have a timer with us when we went to breaks. If the time read longer than 15 minutes, we would be written up. If we left our work station or spoke too loudly, we’d get written up.
A lot of us ended up quitting shortly afterwards.
Image credits: anon
#11
Every July 4th, there's a great parade in Willimantic, CT - the Boom Box Parade. It's unique and totally inclusive; literally anyone can join, from political groups to the local food co-op, to the karate dojo kids and the Victorian house association, some dude on a skateboard, 4-H clubs, stilt walkers, local businesses, local weirdos, etc. Oh, and did I mention, there's no band, so you have to bring your boom box and tune to the local station - they broadcast the parade music and it fills the air. Very loony, very fun.Anyway, the street is lined with folks in lawn chairs watching and cheering for people on floats. It USED to be that people on floats would bring super soakers and blast the crowd (in addition to throwing candy and beads), and the best of all was the Hosmer Mountain Soda Company - they had a water cannon in the back of their delivery truck, and they'd fill it with a couple of gallons of water and BLAST this huge squirt of water into the watching throngs. It was great, because of course it's usually around 90 degrees on July 4th in CT, so everyone enjoyed it and screamed and laughed and had a great time.
Or so we thought - a few years ago some lady got mad because their hair got wet, so now there's a rule against any kind of squirt guns or water balloons. Also no "throwing" candy (they can gently place it into a kid's hand). Thanks, you miserable old bag.
Image credits: disqeau
#12
This happened earlier this week. I work in a kindergarten and a standard practice, for years. was to reward kids with stickers. Well, earlier this week one little angel decided that a sticker is edible and ate it. The sticker, living up to it's name, got stuck and lodged in the throat.... Hospital, angry parents and no more stickers
Image credits: StoppedListeningToMe
In addition to being unlikely to change the culprit’s behavior, group punishment is likely to create worse behaviour in the rest of the group, the professor argues. “Being punished for something you did not do causes resentment towards the authority (teacher or manager), which in turn will lead to less productive behavior in the workplace or classroom. We know that students who have a good relationship with their teachers are much more likely to exhibit positive classroom behavior, and group punishment is a perfect way to destroy that relationship,” he commented and added that “similarly, a workplace wants to create a culture where the team is intrinsically motivated to be the best.”
#13
At my undergrad university TAs are no longer allowed to answer questions about the problems during exams if medical students are taking the exam. Apparently somebody complained that answering questions during the exam gives some students an unfair advantage. I have to add, though, that the questions that are answered by TAs during an exam are usually about unclarities/ambiguities/missing information in the exam problems. They will not give the students hints on how to solve the problem.#14
In my office, we used to have free candy bars (the small / bite size) at the exec admin's desk. Someone demanded a certain candy bar or complained that there was too much of one kind of candy, not sure which was the issue. The EA got really annoyed at their brattiness and got rid of the free candy. No more afternoon snackies.
Image credits: GorditoCat
#15
TD Bank used to have a free “Penny Arcade” for customers, that would count all of your change, and give you a slip to get cash from the teller. It was so convenient. And fun for the kids, as they made a guessing game out of it.Some guy said he was shorted a few pennies, and filed a lawsuit against the bank. And poof, all the penny arcades in all of the banks got closed down.
Even if they missed a few pennies here and there, it’s still way cheaper than the ones in the supermarket that charge for use.
So long story short, f**k that guy.
For these reasons, group punishment is not the most ideal way to deal with problematic behavior. Thomas argues that instead, the best way to do so, whether it be in the school or in the workplace, is to address the underlying cause of the behavior.
He explained: “A teacher or manager can only do this if they understand the reasons why the individual is acting the way they do. Is the student acting out because they have no friends? Is the employee not productive because they are unsure of the task? When these underlying causes are known, then a solution can be implemented that is likely to benefit the whole group.”
#16
Well, at my work we’re on the verge of losing the privilege of being able to listen to our own music/podcasts/audiobooks because one guy thought it would be okay to loudly listen to a podcast about pornstars and the making of porn.#17
Phones were removed from break rooms in the building because one guy decided to use them to call his family overseas.Zero tolerance on being late for work because several people decided that because there was a 15 minute buffer before being considered late then they actually didn't have to be there until 15 minutes after the hour, and some of them couldn't even handle that...
#18
About twenty years ago, anyone wanting to make a Banana Split at Brauhm's Ice Cream and Dairy would have a paring knife for the task. Then one day some bored dipsh*t was tapping one such paring knife against his leg point first. A concerned onlooker pointed out the danger. "It won't even go through the apron," the mouth breather countered, putting just a little more force behind his next tap to prove his point.Four stitches later, Brauhm's replaced their pairing knifes with rounded tip steak knives, and though they offered no explanation, I've always assumed it was because some moron couldn't comprehend that having a dull edge didn't preclude a knife from having a sharp point.
Source - I was the idiot who stabbed himself in the leg at work. In my defense, they had three people on grill and I had nothing better to do.
Moreover, Thomas added that addressing problematic or unproductive behavior is part of a teacher or manager’s job. “They need to be equipped with the knowledge and strategies that will produce long-term gains rather than short-term compliance.”
“Group punishment may look like it is working when it is applied – students and employees will appear to be doing the right thing for a while – but without addressing the underlying cause of the problem, leaders who impose this strategy should expect an increase in undesirable behavior in the future,” the professor concluded.
#19
Worked for a pub that didn't have a specific rule about not drinking (alcohol) on shift, but it was well known that you didn't do it. After an event, when we cleaning down, the boss would buy us a drink and we would drink it whilst finishing up.Then one day one of the younger staff members (above legal drinking age, but still young enough to be stupid), decided to drink on shift, get hammered, and f**k up at his job. Boss tries to discipline him, but the fact there was no rule about not drinking on shift meant co worker got away with it. Cue new rule being added to say drinking on shift was forbidden, and there goes our 'reward' drinks from our boss. And due to the staff member betraying his trust, the boss became a lot more stand-offish and the whole atmosphere of the place changed.
Image credits: anon
#20
I worked at a graphic design and website company, and we had an in-house photography studio too. Nobody there was over 40, and the atmosphere was really relaxed. Almost every member of the team had visible tattoos and we wore jeans/whatever to work every day.Then an educational software company looking to diversify bought us and put in a corporate dress code stating that we all had to have collared shirts, no visible tattoos, dress shoes, and if I was wearing a skirt it had to be longer than knee length.
We just ignored the rule until the IT guy from corporate stopped in unannounced and snitched on us.
F**k you Mike.
Image credits: internetdiscocat
#21
A company I worked for had free feminine products in the bathrooms. They stopped stocking them because someone would take every single pad and tampon. An email was sent warning that the products wouldnt be stocked if the theft continued. And some f****r still stole them.
Image credits: analyticalscience11
#22
We weren’t allowed to play dodgeball at school anymore because some kid was domed in the head and bitched to his parents. They suspended the game, so being supportive young kids, we threw those hard leathered basketballs at him the next day.#23
This one guy in my school got into 4 wrecks in the parking lot. They implemented a 5 mph speed limit. Everyone was angry and the guy got into a another wreck 2 weeks later anyway.
Image credits: Hetaliafan1
#24
Our company had to buy all office staff steel toecap shoes as one woman in the office decided to wear flip flops to work and dropped a full box of paper on her foot. Everyone else already wore sensible shoes and carried one ream at a time because it was safer.#25
I work in healthcare. On Fridays we used to be able to dress casual instead of our usual color assigned scrubs (colors are based on title ex: CNAs purple, housekeeping blue, etc). One day a CNA showed up in a cleavage baring belly shirt, mini skirt, knee high boots and heavy make up. I don't know what the hell she was thinking, but ever since we're only allowed to wear different colored scrubs on Fridays. Even more annoying because she hasn't worked there in years but the rule stuck.
Image credits: TuesDazeGone
#26
This happened before I joined the company but dress rules were very relaxed, including shorts (which if I could I would wear shorts ALL THE TIME, even in blizzard conditions).So one idiot comes in on Friday with his bike and his racing bike gear including those nylon biker shorts which show off his junk and a*s. He was surprised when he was sent home to change and the rules got a lot stiffer after that. So now we don't even get regular shorts for casual fridays (They allowed it one month during the summer when sales were amazing).
Image credits: jaytrade21
#27
One of my coworkers was snooping around and opening people's pay stub letters. He managed to keep his job (union...) but now all paystubs are sent through email.But that's not the kicker. This same guy complained that the part time staff where getting paid to much. As a result, the full time staff didn't get a wage increase, but they cut the rate for part time staff. This resulted in a $10 per hour difference gap now. He was no better off, he just made life worse for all the part time staff.
Over time, they have closed the gap a little, but wow.
Image credits: IceBear14
#28
A restaurant I worked at changed a policy just weeks after I started.Old rule: Employees may drink up to 2 alcoholic beverages after their shift, provided they change out of work clothes.
New Rule: No employee of 'Hoover Street Cafe' may drink ANY alcohol at ANY location. Period. EVER. Or you're fired.
What happened? A soon-to-be ex-GM came in after serving hours, made a sh*t-ton of drinks for her, her husband, and her friends and then comped the tab.
Yep, that'll do it.
#29
We were given work from home access so we can login and work, in case of emergencies. However, management didn't bat an eye if one day a week we logged in from home instead of coming to the office.One idiot, when working from Home, was clearly stating "I'll work on it when i'm back in the office." during email and IMs. They immediately stopped all work at home requests and all work had to be done in the office.
It was clear that nobody was really "working" from home, but work was reasonable enough where as long as we showed face and addressed issues as they came up, we were fine. They didnt expect somebody to be that stupid....
Image credits: lFalseShepardl
#30
We used to have little wine and food mixers in the office every month.Then f*****g Jessica had to bring vodka. Next thing you knows she’s running around the office with no shoes trying to play tag, flirting with bosses, calling a female co-worked a b***h, eventually passing out in her cubicle and we had to call her husband to collect her.
No more wine and appetizers :-(
Image credits: Hiredgun77
#31
My school used to do cool outside activities like, bowling, surfing, ice skating, gymnastics etc.Some dipsh*t from another school, was at the pool for swimming lessons/ swimming contests (one of the best activities in summer if you don’t wanna surf) he ran into the pool area when he wasn’t supposed to and jumped into a pool still filling up, cracked his head and became a paraplegic and his parents tried to sue the school activities, because apparently they wasn’t a sign where he jumped and multiple verbal warning wasn’t good enough. (Parents lost the case)
So all activities from all participating schools were cancelled and never re-started again. I got to have 3 cool activities days before it was cancelled because of that guy.
#32
I work at Starbucks.As many of you know, we use acronyms for *everything.* That short hand you see on the side of the cups? It's how we marked things.
Until some dips*** who didn't know what an acronym was, instead of asking, added the wrong ingredient to a drink. The customer, of course, got violently sick due to an allergy.
Now we have to write out the names of everything instead of using acronyms (except when marking cups).
Not that anyone actually *does* write it out, but we're *supposed* to.
Image credits: Galiphile
#33
One dumb s***head year seven decided to burn their mouth on the coffee they bought at school. Their mother decided to try and sue the school and now we don’t have hot drinks anymore. Hate that kid
Image credits: anon
#34
Years ago, this a*****e co-worker of mine who had been a union carpenter in Vegas during a building boom out there decided that he was being somehow shorted on his on-call hours when he could avoid an after-hours service call. he thought he should be paid for the phone time. so he gets Federal wage and hour workbooks and goes in an lectures the big boss on how she does not know what she is doing. well, all this did was totally screw the rest of us and we had had to spend hours a week filling out paperwork to account for every minute we were on the clock. the last time i saw him, i reminded him of what an a*****e he is. i should have stuck it out with that company, he got canned about a month after i resigned.#35
I worked in a place once that cut bathroom breaks because one girl kept taking them, she was allowed because she was pregnant, but she was staying up there 15 minutes at a time on her phone because she hated work.
Also worked in an open office where there were multiple different sports companies on the same level and we would have like rice krispie squares and oreos on fridays mostly but that stopped when someone from the rowing company complained of there being unhealthy food.
#36
Some dumbass burned up a bag of microwave popcorn and set off the fire alarm in the state psych hospital, on 3rd shift (around 2-3 am). The entire building had to be evacuated, which involved about 15-20 staff and 150 psych patients being herded out in the middle of the night. After that, there was a ban on microwave popcorn.Edit: Also, the city fire department showed up. They weren't happy.
#37
At Facebook there is a restaurant on the campus for staff and visitors that serves booze. They used to serve booze during all business hours until one person got too hammered and went back to work. Now they only serve alcohol after 5.#38
I used to work at a therapy farm for people with mental health issues/learning difficulties. Never had any problem until we had an open day for the general public when, after a panicked rush to the hospital, we had to put up huge signs telling people not to put their whole hands into the pigs mouth when feeding them.(These were BIG pigs with enormous tusks, most of our clients were wary even going near them not sure what that lady was thinking. She was lucky she kept all her fingers!)
Image credits: Svg47
#39
People can’t bring their dogs into work because one person brought in their puppy who had an accident and she wouldn’t clean up after it because the cleaner should do it. Awful#40
Worked for large company. When we hired contract workers, we let them go to company BBQs and picnics.Then when we didn't renew one's contract, they claimed "we treated them like employees" and sued us for unemployment benefits.
No more BBQs and picnics for contract workers.
#41
At my local hospital we have this thing called "Ticket To Ride" or Transport Ticket.It pretty much means that the staff isn't allowed to take patients anywhere within the hospital unless the nurse/caregiver fills out and signs a form. Simple right?
We didn't always have that in place. When I started working there it was all done through verbal communication and that worked fine. Until about 4 years ago... someone brought a patient back from their appointment and for whatever reason didn't let the nurse know that the patient was in their room. The patient was on an O2 tank.
By the time the staff realized the patient was back the tank was on empty and from what I heard the patient almost died. Soon after a similar incident happened except the brakes on the recliner weren't set and the patient ended up falling on the floor because of it.
Since then the hospital made up the "Ticket To Ride" system. It's a pain in the a*s only because you use to just do what you gotta do with the patients and leave, but now some nurses are no where to be found because they don't want to sign the ticket. I'm serious. They don't want to sign the ticket so they hide or do other things that require 10-20 minutes to do. It's a different story when they are busy with another patient for a moment, but come on now... it literally takes 13 seconds to fill out these damn things.
So, thanks to those of you who couldn't do your jobs properly. You ruined it for everyone else.
#42
Used to work in car sales that sold all kinds of second hand cars. If you needed to take a car to another branch in a different town you used to be able to take the car home that night and have it ready at your house in the morning to head straight there without going into work and swapping over. One guy at another branch faked a move request on a high end Range Rover so he could use it that night on a date which would have been fine really but he got drunk and wrote it off on the high street by rolling it over.. goes without saying no one was ever allowed to take cars home again after that
Image credits: djzedcarter
#43
Any time work had a company-wide meeting, they'd buy large cases of soda and have a lot left over. They'd put them in the various fridges around the office and you were free to take one or two a day if you wanted it. Some a*****e loaded up a dufflebag with full cans one Friday as he left, and the next week or so later the sodas were all locked in the supply closet. Now they buy much smaller cases so that there's almost no left overs.
Image credits: Arch27
#44
I worked as an English teacher in South Korea for a few years. It used to be that if school was off, you didn't have to go in. It made sense. What happened was a vocal person decided it was not fair that certain people didn't have to go in because their school's calendar was different. They started complaining about it and the result was that everyone has a set number of vacation days and you have to schedule your days off. That person was not very popular and ended up leaving before long. They ruined it for future teachers though.
Image credits: Vlaed
#45
We're doing 12 hour nightshifts in China, and normally we would sneak off to our empty office and take a 40 minute nap. It was great and left us refreshed until our moron coworker kept falling asleep in the control room loudly snoring. Now we have received some very stern warnings about sleeping on the job.
Image credits: ooo-ooo-oooyea
#46
One year in high school they instituted a "no dunking" rule.It was because some guy dunked and decided to hang on the rim like he was Shaq, and that might have been okay, but dude did chin ups on it and wriggled around as he swung like he was being tasered.
A rain of 'glass' or fibreglass or whatever the hell the backboard was made of came down as the guy screamed louder.
So of course, game was over, and the bused us back to our school and we were all pissed at the guy.
Then next day in praise, they tell us our league - high school basketball for a large region - decided just 'f**k this' and immediately there was a rule that dunks weren't allowed, were a technical and immediately disqualification and suspension.
Thanks Ben!
Image credits: billbapapa
#47
Local swimming lessons my daughter goes to requires any child 4 or younger to wear a swimming diaper. It used to be a “heavily encouraged” kind of rule. Now it’s reusable swim diaper over disposable diaper, mandatory.This is because of one mother. They asked her to put a diaper on her 3.5 year old, she swore she was potty trained and made a big fuss about it. Kid pooped within like 5 minutes of getting in the pool. So pool was shut down. Next lesson same thing, a couple of us parents even offered to give her diapers for her child. Nope she refused, saying her kid will never poop in the pool again. 10 minutes later pool was shut down.
After that they made it mandatory and got very strict about it. My daughter was a month away from turning 4 but they said she has to wear a diaper. My kid was pissed about it but I understood.
#48
We had a microwave in the school cafeteria that only seniors could use that caught on fire.One day some sleep deprived student tried to heat his burrito still wrapped in the foil and in a paper bag in the microwave. The bag caught fire, damaged the microwave, and caused a huge ruckus. Everyone lost the privilege of having a microwave let alone using one and everyone was upset. I would chalk it up to stupidity but everyone was operating on fumes that I don't think anyone was fully awake during school hours.
#49
My high school choir allowed the seniors (in choir) to vote on a song to perform at graduation. We would spend a day sorting nominated songs to narrow down to a couple which would have a brief defense of the song and why it should be chosen put before the group and then we'd all vote. Simple democratic process. It was usually some moderately popular pop song, no big deal. My senior year, several of us are huge Freddie Mercury / Queen fans so we grouped together to nominate Bohemian Rhapsody, which won the vote by a huge (over 95% margin). We were happy, the choir was happy, the director and administration were happy. Life was good.Then... The next week... One senior girl approached the director in tears about how "this song about DRUGS is going to ruin MY graduation!" (she didn't understand the line "so you think you can stone me and spit in my eye." She literally thought it was about getting stoned...)
Anyway, the director tells is all what happened, we laugh at how ridiculous it is, until she says that because of this, we will have to change the song.
Wut...
No f*****g way, we selected it democratically and it was voted for by a massive margin. So we were forced to go before the choir AGAIN, opposite little miss still crying dumbass, and argue for the song again and she gets to argue her case as well. Her only words to the class were how "if this song is picked I REFUSE to participate in graduation, because I don't believe in drugs!"
There was no vote this time. The director decided we would not sing the song. And substituted it with an African freedom song, which we neither picked nor voted on at any stage. We threatened to not sing at graduation if that was the case and she just told is to "not cause any additional drama.". The administration tried to offer is a compromise by playing the song as we exited at the end, which we begrudgingly accepted.
Graduation comes, little Miss Priss stands in the top row with a s**t eating grin on her face, and proudly sings the African freedom song, while a bunch of us stand and refuse to open our mouths but it's moot at that point.
And as one final f**k you to us, it seemed, we get to the end of the ceremony and instead of Bohemian Rhapsody playing, they put on Bittersweet Symphony... I heard that the next year they had a "banned songs" list that we're not allowed for the senior vote. It was full of random rap and pop songs (like someone googled a top 40 list) and right there at the top was Bohemian Rhapsody.
I don't know what that girl's problem really was, but she somehow bested a 400 person graduating class and effectively banned a modern masterpiece purely because she was too stupid to understand the lyrics... This was 15 years ago and I'm still bitter...