Disabling SEP using smc command

Hi,

I need help. We have 250 SEP client installed and whenever we want to troubleshoot something that we think this AV is  preventing us to run, we usually use smc -stop ans smc -start to stop and start the service. I use the eicar AV test to test if the SEP is already stopped, but it still quarantines the test file. BTW, the "disable the Symantec Endpoint protection" option is already greyed-out.

What is the best way to disable the SEP client? for troubleshooting purposes. We dont want to uninstall then install it just for the sake of testing an application.