Our senior class of about 500 was in the gym for a mid-day assembly for something I don't remember. For some reason, when it was time for the assembly to end, some student said that we should all just stay there and not leave to go to our next class. So we stayed, everyone getting in a good mood and figuring, hey, let's all just stay here.
About five or ten minutes passed with no one leaving, and everyone just chuckling and wondering what would happen if we all just stayed.
Then the principal, in what was to be the most humiliating moment of his career, came up to the podium and sternly warned us (about 500 of us) that anyone who stays and doesn't go now to their next class will be marked as an unexcused absence and have to serve detention.
Immediate loud laughter from the whole crowd followed. Then more laughter as we all imagined our whole class of 500 in one big detention. Nobody left then - it was now a big party atmosphere. Eventually after about 5 or ten more minutes people started to leave as they figured, what the hell do we want to stay here for anyway? Most of us just stayed, but as the crowd slowly dwindled it started to seem pretty stupid to just stay there, so our big "protest" ended. Nobody, of course, got any detention as a result.
We went on strike when I was in 4th grade, because the substitute teacher had sent a kid in early from a softball game during p.e. for cussing. We took our bats and walked around the courtyard yelling "W'ere on Strike! We're on Strike!" until the principal came out, and I guess we were pretty scared of him cuz we dispersed when he started snarling at us.
I was soooo scared I was going to be in trouble that when my Mom picked me up I thought I'd better get in a preemptive confession so I told her what had happened. I couldn't understand why she wasn't saying anything, and when I looked over she was biting her lip to keep from cracking up.
This was during the height of the Vietnam protests, btw, Spring of 1969.