Disable sorting for first row of columns in thead.

Hello!

I have a table that has multiple rows in the thead, like this:

<table>
    <thead>
        <tr class="areas">
            <th colspan="1">Remove</th>
            <th colspan="6">Student Info</th>
            <th colspan="4">Theory</th>
            <th colspan="2">Behind The Wheel</th>
            <th colspan="1">Send</th>
        </tr>
        <tr class="items">
            <th></th>
            (13 more th cells)
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td></td>
            (13 more td cells)
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

Here is a screenshot to give you a better idea (and don't worry, it's all fake data):

Is there a way to disabled sorting on that first "areas" row? When I click one of them it sorts, but by the index of the column clicked. Clicking "student info" sorts "remove from list", "theory" sorts "student name", "behind the wheel" sorts "date of birth", etc...

I'd create an example, but this table is incredibly complex in multiple ways, so was hoping I could get by without having a working example.

I know I can go in and remove those ordering classes/attributes manually with my own jquery after the table has initialized, but was just wondering if there was a setting I could turn off without having to go in and manually remove those classes/attributes from each tr.areas > th tag.

Thanks for any help you can offer!