Taking the "Pal" out of "Principal"

Even here in conformity-and-decorum land, where teachers get fired for not singing the old militarist national anthem, even in the old Soviet Union, they would never dream of something like this: Cheer out loud at a graduation - get arrested. Clearly, some people really, really need to show they are in charge. Educators often complain that people like high-school principals are unfairly stereotyped as mean-spirited, petty tyrants -- I wonder where that stereotype comes from?