Students and parents are not happy about how a South Dakota high school’s presentation documenting clothing considered inappropriate to wear to campus only included images of girls but not boys.

Most schools probably have dress codes in place as a guideline for students, parents and teachers. Whether it’s written out somewhere or presented as a slideshow shouldn’t matter, except that in this case it seems as if this school’s seven-slide presentation is targeting female students specifically.

If you’re going to address a body of students, please do so equally. It doesn’t matter if you may have more rules geared toward the girls than the boys. Why would you only include images of females but not males?

If the dress code was written out without any images, I think most people would understand, “no spaghetti-strap tank tops” and “no sagging pants.”

And why include images in a slideshow in the first place? A list of what’s considered inappropriate attire seems satisfactory. We know what girls in short shorts look like, so why don’t you just be specific with text rather than use an image? You can easily say, “shorts must be X inches long,” rather than show an image which may not help answer anyone’s questions if they are confused.

And I understand if you’re trying to make the presentation more engaging and give the audience something to look at while you’re talking, but if that’s your reasoning behind it, then at least include photos of boys, too.

The school’s principal, Melinda Jensen, defended her presentation by asking if people wanted her to show a photo of a boy wearing a hat and a boy not wearing a hat. Such images would clearly show what the rule means, however the rule can be easily understood without images at all.

I say just get rid of all the images in the slideshow and just use bullet points. They’re easy to read and understand, and if you’re specific enough, it’ll be so clear that everyone understands the rules.

Dress codes may need to be enforced, but this isn’t a fair way of doing so.