This was (just) pre-Columbine, but at a time in the province where schools were okay with really absurd disciplinary codes of conduct. A nearby junior high had recently banned physical contact to the point where helping somebody up if they slipped on ice would result in suspension for "fighting," for example. (The students gloriously overthrew that policy, but that's a whole other story.)
So my principal was getting increasingly frustrated with the situation at my school - and rightly so, frankly. We were all also hearing more about schools putting wideranging draconian disciplinary policies in place. So one morning he decided he'd Had Enough and kind of snapped over the PA system.
The new law (so he proclaimed) was that there was to be a ban on anything that could even be a potential precursor to violence. He didn't include, say, handshakes, but he did specify that arguing was forbidden and then upped his game a bit by adding that he was not even willing to tolerate students disagreeing with one another. If he heard two students having a disagreement, and I mean that in a purely literal sense of the term "disagreement," he said he'd send them home. No exceptions, we should know better, he had enough, rant rant rant rant.
It led to a mostly quiet morning, not because people were obeying that as much as they couldn't believe he'd just gone and said that.
Fast forward to lunch. A couple of my friends decided they were going to act on this by playing around with how totally ridiculous the concept was. So at lunch they go down to near the principal's office, which was near the school entrance and one of the really heavily trafficked parts of the building at that time of day. People hung out in or near the area because they'd see people they knew who were passing through to one place or another, so lots of witnesses for anything.
The two of them decide they're going to Have An Argument. Nothing whatsoever past that, mind, but they are determined to disagree! So they start discussing a book they'd recently read and were of differing opinions about. They made sure that the actual words they were using wouldn't have been out of place in a classroom or any other be-nice environment, but also made sure to use as belligerent a tone and body language as they could without actually going violent.
Cue the sight of two people, in each other's faces discussing literature in an intelligent way, while making sure they actually sounded like they were saying "I am going to murder you twice" with every sentence.
"Well I totally understand where you're coming from but I do not buy that interpretation at all!"
"Well that is your right, of course, since it's open to many readings! What exactly are the problems you're having with it?!"
"Well, mainly that you're jumping to conclusions about the character's motivations!"
"Huh? I can support it all! Textually!"
It went on for ten minutes or so, with several staff and dozens of students witnessing at least parts of it, all of them (especially the teachers) understanding exactly what was going on not ten feet away from the office door.
The principal never again mentioned his new rules.
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