The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho is continuing an investigation into whether an Eagle High School student has been treated unfairly by the school's newspaper.
But hard evidence has yet to surface."At this point, everything is on hold until we see some evidence that suggests what (the newspaper staff) did is impermissible," said Jack Van Valkenburgh, executive director of the ACLU of Idaho.
"But I'm not closing the book on this yet because evidence may come in of past issues of the paper showing controversial advertising or improper motivation."
Senior Travis Riggs contacted the American Civil Liberties Union after the Stampede, Eagle High's student-operated newspaper, rejected an advertisement for a support group in Boise called Your Family, Friends and Neighbors Inc. The ad promotes "an open, safe place for all non-heterosexual youth to meet."
Meridian School District spokeswoman Bev Stoddard said students on the newspaper staff, including the student editor, told Riggs to change some language in the ad or it would not run.
"He (Riggs) never came back with it," Stoddard said. "I talked to the adviser, and she said she didn't get involved at all. It was the students' decision not to run the ad."
Riggs said he changed the ad once by modifying the words gay, lesbian, and bisexual to "non-heterosexual."
"If I took `non-heterosexual' out too, the ad would lose its message," he said.
Despite a number of hateful comments from other students, Riggs said he plans to continue fighting to get the advertisement into the paper.
"I think it's really important," he said.