DETROIT (AP) -- Four high school football players charged with gang-raping a 14-year-old cheerleader were ordered to return to class, but the judge left it up to the school to decide whether they could play in Friday night's game.
"This court orders the immediate returning of these children to school and to the general population," Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Stephens said Friday.
The River Rouge High School students, who have missed two football games since their arrests, smiled after Stephens issued her ruling. Their families did not allow them to speak to reporters.
LaJuan Ewing, 17, Jeffery Jackson, 17, Lamar Toney, 17, and a 16-year-old juvenile were barred from attending regular classes after they were arrested on Oct. 9. They have been attending alternative-schooling classes on school property.
None of the four -- all starters on the team -- can afford college without a football scholarship, their lawyers said during the court hearing.
"These four kids have done nothing to hurt the educational environment of the school," said Gerald Evelyn, Jackson's attorney. "And they are eligible to continue their education because they are lucky enough to be student athletes, and their families can't afford university."
In her ruling, Stephens said the school did not give the players' families a proper hearing before taking them out of regular classes. She also said keeping them out of school would cause them irreparable harm and deprive them of educational opportunities.
The school board would have to decide if the teens would play in Friday night's game, Stephens said.
A lawyer for the school district, Charles Wycoff, said after the hearing that he didn't know if the boys would be allowed to play. He said he also isn't sure whether the school will take further action.
School officials declined comment.
Police and prosecutors allege that each of the student raped the girl while the others held her after forcing her to walk to a home where one of the four lived. The girl, now in home school, told a guidance counselor who contacted police.
The students have pleaded innocent to four counts each of first degree criminal sexual assault, a felony that carries a sentence of up to life in prison.
A preliminary hearing is set for Nov. 10.
