When I was in high school, the principal used to measure the boy’s sideburns and the girl’s skirts with a ruler. A couple of years later, he was fired for (among other things) bringing his own steaks to school and having the cooks prepare them for him so he didn’t have to eat the school food. He was a real jerk. The “teacher” in this story sounds like a relative of his.
When I was in school, we had to kneel, if our hem didn't touch the floor we had to go home and change clothes.