The Water Bottle Rule

while i was waiting to start class today, i saw a new student drinking from the water cooler with his hands. i looked at him the way i do and he seemed to get my point. there's a kind of unstated rule, a social norm, that it is inappropriate to drink from the water cooler with your hands. later today i saw him doing it again. i looked at him and he gave a interesting reason for his behavior. i think he knew it wasn't appropriate to be doing this but his "water bottle had broken" and to me that seemed like a good excuse. what are we supposed to do when we don't have a water bottle. if we don't have it for a good reason such as it breaking, does the school still enforce the rule of not giving children cups? i told him to go to the office and tell them what happened, and to ask for a cup.
i thought this was important to bring up because i have often found myself in the situation of wondering how far a rule would go.
i would like to give this kid props because he did a number of things i couldn't have done at his age,
he recognized the non verbal cues i was sending out
he answered a question that was there but unasked thanks
he respected my opinion that there are other ways to do things and didn't argue that his way was okay.
comments, feedback