• Slogan was disruptive in class

I'm calling about the term "boobies" again. It's in the Modesto Bee. A middle school has filed a free speech lawsuit against a school district. They were suspended for wearing those bracelets. Okay, so it's a free speech issue. Supposedly these were designed to raise money and breast cancer awareness among young people but there had been bans across the country. School officials argue the slogan is distracting and demeaning and trivializes a serious illness and I totally agree.

So there.

• Helping hand, yes, frills for poor, no

I'm calling about our welfare program. I do believe in giving people a helping hand but what really bothers me is it seems like these helping hands are helping to feed dogs or helping to buy cell phones and pay cell phone bills, also helping to buy cigarettes which is not only killing the person smoking but also killing anybody else around them. I really think there should be some kind of control over what they can buy with the money they receive.

• Parent protests grading change at CVHS

I came home from work today today and asked my kids, "So how was school?" My son said, "Great!" When I asked my daughter she said "Bad!" So I asked her what had happened and this is what she told me.

She had taken a test and had a "B," which she was happy with but because the rest of the class had such a hard time with it her teacher decided to possibly change her grading policy to a curve scale in which case she would get a "D"! What? Does this sound fair to anyone? I don't think so. So needless to say I was outraged and contacted everyone I could think of from the superintendent of the Ceres school district to her counselor to the principal of Central Valley High School, to her teacher! Unfortunately I had to leave voice messages because of my work schedule, so we will see what happens! I just want to let the citizens of Ceres know this is happening and to take a stand for our kids because no one else will and they are our future!

What do you think?

• Police, fire personnel thanked for response

I would like to thank the Ceres police and fire departments for their fast and caring response when my mother-in-law fell in front of her home last week. Not only did we have multiple responders come to her home - it looked like a war zone by the time we made it - but they took care of my distraught father-in-law as well as my mother-in-law.

Thanks again for all you did and do every day.

• Owner, police share blame for dog's death

I'm calling in regards to the dog that was ran over by the police department. In response to this last call in "Sound Off!" And my response to that is, unfortunately not all dog owners are responsible enough to own a pet. And obviously the owner of this dog wasn't. This animal should not have been ran over and killed. The owner could have ran after the dog and retrieved the dog before it was destroyed.

There were a number of things the officers could have done without even getting out of their car. The dog was probably frightened and just looking for a safe place to hide and just ran over and killed. What were these people thinking? Why didn't someone react and save this animal? It is not the dog's fault. Shame on all of you; you're all a bunch of non compassionate dim-wits.