AURORA, Colo. -- The attorney representing a suspended Cherry Creek School District high school teacher planned to file a federal lawsuit Friday, but didn't after he said the district backed down on their demand that the teacher not talk to the media.

David Lane, who also represents University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill, said the district was violating his client's freedom of speech by preventing him from talking to reporters.

Jay Bennish, a social studies teacher at Overland High School, was placed on administrative leave earlier this week while the district investigations whether his comments about President George W. Bush were made in violation of school policy.

A 10th-grade student in his class recorded his comments in a world geography class and played them on several radio stations Wednesday. On the recording, Bennish criticizes Bush's foreign policy.

The United States was "probably the single most violent nation on planet Earth," Bennish said on the tape. The comments were made the day after the president's Jan. 31 State of the Union speech.

Lane said that Bennish was just trying to get his students to think.

"He starts out every semester saying, 'I am going to throw stuff out there that I don't even necessarily believe to be true. I am just going to provoke you guys into thinking and speaking and analyzing,'" said Lane. He also said the student took the teacher's comments out of context.

"This has been going on for years in his class and no one has complained about it because this is what it's all about: (to) get these kids talking, (to) get these kids thinking, (to) get these kids debating the point," said Lane.

He planned to meet with school district officials Friday afternoon in an effort to settle differences between the district and Bennish. In the federal complaint Lane had prepared to file, he alleged "prior restraint upon (Bennish's) speech, seeking to prevent him from speaking to the media about a matter of public concern involving his suspension from his teaching duties based upon allegedly critical comments he made in class regarding such topics as capitalism, the war in Iraq and President Bush."

In the complaint, Lane said Bennish was advised that the district "preferred" he not speak to the media and that if he did, his action would be viewed as "insubordination." The complaint said Bennish's belief that insubordination was grounds for termination and that "this was a very thinly disguised, (if disguised at all) threat against him." Read Draft Federal Complaint.

The school district reportedly said it never told Bennish he couldn't talk to the media.

About 150 students walked out of class in protest of the suspension Thursday morning. They gathered in front of the school and in the park nearby. Then, additional students walked out to protest the teacher's remarks.

Cherry Creek School District spokeswoman Tustin Amole said Thursday that the district is investigating the comments that Bennish made, but no disciplinary action has been taken.

She said the recording only represents 20 minutes of the classroom lecture so school officials need to talk to him and other students and determine whether this was an isolated incident or a pattern of behavior.

The investigation into whether any school district policy has been breached should take about a week, she said.

"We do want teachers to express their opinions, but to put that in context and to provide opposing points of view ... All discussion must be fair and balanced," said Amole. "We take this very seriously. These allegations of what may have occurred, what appeared to have occurred, are highly inappropriate."

"(The suspension) is not a disciplinary action. It is to give us enough time to sit down and gather all the facts," said Amole.

The student who made the recording on his iPod, Sean Allen, said Friday that he is considering transferring from Overland High School. Allen said he has received threats of physical violence since coming forward with his recording. According to his MySpace profile, Allen is a budding stand-up comic. On Thursday, Allen appeared on national television, including FOX News Channel programs "The O'Reilly Factor" and "Hannity and Colmes" to talk about the controversy.