The beginnings of a contentious debate over mandated parent attendance at the Sweet Home School District’s drug and alcohol information sessions surfaced Tuesday night at the Board of Education meeting.

Board member Dirk Rabenold objected to the district’s current policy, which makes students ineligible for extracurricular activities if their parents do not attend the sessions.

Rabenold also questioned whether the high school’s administrative staff had the power to mandate attendance, or if creating such mandates should be a power of the board alone.

“As far as mandates go, if Sweet Home is mandating parents or teachers to do anything, that should be a board-level decision,” he said. “In general, though, I don’t agree with the School Board getting involved with issues that should be the parents’ responsibility to monitor.”

Board Vice President Marianne Jasen bristled at the suggestion, noting that the meetings are essential to ensuring a culture of safety at the district’s extracurricular events.

“If we don’t make this program mandatory, we’ll only be preaching to the choir,” she said. “We risk not reaching the students and parents we need to reach.”

Rabenold was unconvinced and said that there could be better ways of reaching those individuals.

“If there are people we can identify who need this program,” he said, “why aren’t we reaching out to the family instead of issuing a blanket mandate?”