By Tom Farquhar
Potomac

Post education blogger Valerie Strauss concluded that “sanity was restored” when Churchill High School officials reversed their decision to cancel a student production of “Chicago” [The Answer Sheet, Oct. 29]. Later she said, “I think this kind of censorship is an assault on free speech.” After all, she reasons, it was “impossible for anybody at school to claim that they didn’t know it was about murder and sex and other themes that, come to think of it, run through Shakespeare’s plays too.”

Methinks the lady doth protest too much. The Supreme Court has explicitly acknowledged that students’ free-speech rights may be limited as schools carry out their responsibility to “safeguard those entrusted to their care” (Frederick v Morse, 2007). The court has argued that students’ rights must be “balanced against the society’s countervailing interest in teaching students the boundaries of socially appropriate behavior” (Hazelwood School District v Kuhlmeier, 1988).

By Jill Homan
Washington

District residents have seen it before with Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder. But now, we are witnessing it with the D.C. Council’s approach to Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee. Micromanagement does not work.

While Snyder’s poor management style results in a losing season, the stakes are more significant for our children. The council’s interference with Rhee’s attempts to change our public school system is the surest path to continued poor test results and high dropout rates.

I applaud The Post’s Oct. 31 editorial for describing Rhee’s efforts to steer the schools through a financial storm in a manner that puts children, not politics, first. Unfortunately, the council has not followed her lead, choosing instead to grandstand about the firings of some public school teachers.

Clearly, layoffs are personal and traumatic events. Each of the 266 teachers fired by Rhee is someone’s friend and relative. But the council and Rhee are tasked with making difficult decisions to ensure our children receive an acceptable education.

Unfortunately, the council’s outrage screams of misplaced priorities.

By Virginia R. Pass
Silver Spring

I do not understand The Post’s trust in D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee. She is running roughshod over the rights of teachers, all the while claiming that she is acting in the best interests of the children.

Certainly students in D.C. public schools have been poorly served for many years, and they have a fundamental right to a good education. But that education can’t happen without teachers. When a school system shows callousness toward its employees, as Rhee did with her recent firing of hundreds of teachers and other workers, it undermines its ability to find dedicated people to work in such a climate.

By Bonnie Marcus
Oakton

My husband got an iPhone last month. It’s as if he died and went to heaven. I have been instructed to stop calling him so much and just send him an e-mail. This could be the end of a beautiful relationship. Thirty-five years of marriage down the toilet. I have turned into an app. The wife app.

Can you imagine an app that holds down a job, does her domestic duties, manages the household, raises the children and cares for the dog? All of this plus keeping her spouse’s ego intact. I am the best app available, no? Better, the wife app comes free of fees.

By Mary Siddall
Washington

Once a month, the principal of my daughter’s D.C. public school — Ross Elementary in Northwest — hosts an informal coffee with parents. It’s always held in the morning, right after the children are dropped off. This gathering is an open forum with no agenda — a way for parents to connect, ask questions, share concerns and find out what’s really going on at the school.

We usually meet in the library, but last month, our great new special education teacher was working there with a group of students. We met in the teachers’ lounge instead.

By J.W. Evans
Arlington

Rejection seems to be the theme of my week when it comes to locating the swine flu vaccine, and it’s turning me into a stressed-out, neurotic mother.

Clinics are disorganized, the guidelines differ, and no matter where we go, we get turned away because of closed clinics, lack of supply or total chaos and disorganization. I have a 3-year-old, and we have been turned away from four clinics. Even our pediatrician rejected us because of the overwhelming demand.

One clinic gave me a phone number to call to check on vaccine availability, but it sent me in the wrong direction (last time I checked, Lockheed Martin was not giving out H1N1 vaccine).

Meanwhile, we continue to read about children dying from the flu and how we are encouraged to get vaccinated. Well, what else do I need to do? To think of what I’ve gone through — without success — for just the first dose of two; what will it take to get the second one?

This entire process is a real mess, and, as usual, no one wants to take responsibility or ownership to fix what is horribly broken.

By Patty Sheetz
Alexandria

My curiosity was whetted by your Oct. 23 article “Gatekeeper of D.C’s entry” covering a Dupont Circle resident’s editing of the Wikipedia page on the District. The article debunked the myth that no D.C. building can be higher than the Capitol but did not provide the reason why the city’s skyline is so wonderfully low, creating a more human-scale urban environment than in other large cities.

The answer, per Wikipedia (and other sources): Congress passed a law in 1899 limiting building height in the city to no more than the height of the Capitol. That act was amended in 1910 to restrict building height to the width of the right-of-way of the street or avenue that the building fronts, plus 20 feet.

By Ian Spivack
Vienna

For the past five years, I have been riding Metrorail to and from work between Vienna and White Flint. Before the Metro accident in June, my rush-hour commute took one hour. Now, this same commute takes an hour and 15 minutes, sometimes a little more. That extra 15 to 20 minutes may not seem like much, but compounded over a month, it amounts to some 10 extra hours on Metro.

Recently, I began exploring the idea of bicycling to work, but I assumed it would take longer than riding Metro. After some exploration of trails and bike paths, I found my route. On my most recent ride home, I made the trip in one hour and nine minutes, six to 11 minutes faster than taking Metro. Admittedly, this was one of my faster days; I average about one hour and 12 to 15 minutes, depending on how many traffic lights I have to stop at.

I thought my story would be great to run in The Post to show that you can get from almost one end of the Metro system to the other faster by riding a bike than taking Metro.

By Rick Rickertsen
Washington

I saw the best of Washington on a street corner Sunday morning.

I saw, and I felt, a city that was fully together, all pulling in one direction, all pulling for each person. I have not felt that way since late 2001, and it felt so good.

Where did this happen? At 10 a.m. Sunday, on a magnificent, crisp morning, I walked to the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street in Georgetown to watch the runners in the Marine Corps Marathon make the right turn in front of the old Nathan’s tavern. It was the race’s nine-mile mark, and I expected to see a bunch of sweaty, tired people deep in regret for having taken on an arduous four- to five-hour adventure through the D.C. streets.

By Helen Li
Washington

Now that Metro is working with cellphone providers to expand coverage so that more passengers can communicate wirelessly, when can we expect improved communications directly from Metrorail conductors? When passengers’ personal conversations are louder than the announcements made by conductors, should we start worrying about Metro’s priorities?

Most of the time I cannot understand the Metro announcements about the causes of delays, if Metro even bothers to share this information. To the consternation of tourists and the visually impaired, many Metro conductors fail to call out each station’s name or the color of the line.

I have commuted on Metrorail for more than 20 years. Over the years, I have seen improvements in lighting and signage. But, please, improve the sound system in Metro cars and stations so we all can hear any important announcements, or if an emergency evacuation is ever needed.

Metro officials, are you listening?

By Nelson F. Rimensnyder
Washington

Six years ago, my son, James Rimensnyder, then a West Point cadet and a newly registered voter, testified before the D.C. Republican Committee on voting representation in Congress for D. C. residents. The committee was considering a plank in its local platform on the issue.

James, born in the District and a product of its public schools, urged the committee to continue the Republican Party’s longstanding support for D.C. voting rights. He reminded committee members that D.C. voting rights advocate President Dwight D. Eisenhower argued forcefully to Congress that no resident of the nation’s capital should be sent into combat by a Congress in which they are not represented by voting members. At West Point, James wrote his senior thesis on the subject of D.C. voting rights.