UPDATED: Banned Player Will Suit Up After Banana Comment

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This story has been updated.

Jay Cooke will suit up for Friday’s final football game, the Bloomfield Hills High School said Friday.

Cook, who said a comment he made after a player for an opposing team fell to the ground with a leg cramp was misinterpreted, will serve an “in school detention and will not be allowed to attend any fall sporting events” for the remainder of the season, The Oakland Press reports.

After the South Lathrup player suffered the leg cramp at a district soccer playoff game, Cooke said, “Get that boy a banana.”

A district administrator overheard the comment and Cooke was disciplined.

Patch’s earlier report:

It’s unclear if Bloomfield Hills High School senior Jay Cooke will be allowed to play the final game of his high school footballl career Friday when the Black Hawks host the Rochester Adams Highlanders

More than 1,950 people say Cooke should play, according to an online petition challenging a decision by the school administration barring him from the game and all future Bloomfield Hills sporting events this year.

The reason?

It was a comment — one Cooke says was misinterpreted by the administrator who heard it — made Tuesday at a district playoff soccer game.

One of the players from the opposing South Lathrup team went down to the field with a leg cramp, and Cooke shouted: “Get that boy a banana!”

Cooke says all he meant by the remark is that bananas are rich in potassium, and too little potassium can lead to muscle cramps.

But an administrator who overheard it interpreted it as a racist comment.

Bill Boyle, the school district’s director of equity programming, told WXYZ-TV that Cooke may not have intended his words to be hurtful, but it’s important to “match our words with intent.”

Noah Nathan, of West Bloomfield Township, organized the petition effort.

“Speaking on behalf of the student body at BHHS, Jay is one of the most respectful and kindest kids at the school,” Nathan wrote. “There is no way imaginable that Jay would have intended that comment to be rude in any way, let alone racist.

“It is simply unfair that Jay is being punished for this comment, and deserves to have the punishment revoked so he can play in the final football game ... and attend other sporting events this school year.”

The school district says it is reviewing the disciplinary action.

For his part, Cooke said in a statement to the TV station that he’s remorseful that his comment may have hurt others.

He has agreed to serve an in-school suspension and agree not to attend any other fall sporting events, as well as take a global leadership class.

» Photo via Change.org