School officials said a vote on prohibition may be in their future following a recent incident involving a man who allegedly fell asleep in the Auburn Village School following a community dance.

As it now stands, Auburn School Board Chairman Elaine Hobbs said the policy allows alcohol to be served in the town’s only school after 7 p.m. on Saturdays when the building is rented out. Hobbs said an alcohol policy has been in place since at least 1990, adding that it may be time to consider an outright ban on alcohol.

The subject of whether or not it is appropriate for alcohol to be served in the building which is used by more than 500 children every day was raised following an April Lions Club fundraising dance. At the event, which had an open bar available to all adults, Manchester resident Michael Coakley reportedly went to sleep at an area near the school stage during the dance and later awoke to find himself alone in the building.

According to court records, Coakley allegedly caused between $100 and $1,000 damage to a door in his attempts to get out of the building. Coakley is scheduled to go to trail in August on two criminal mischief charges. Regardless of the eventual outcome, Hobbs said the incident is a good opportunity to take a close look at whether alcohol should be in a school building.

She said local parents have not lodged any concerns yet to the board in the wake of the incident.

“But it’s really more of a philosophical discussion on the question of: Is it a good idea to have alcohol in a building that is used mostly by children?” she said on May 23. “What would have happened if (Coakley) had been found by a student returning the next morning for recreational basketball? Those are the things we’re thinking about.”

Neither Hobbs nor Norm Bouley, president of the Candia- Auburn Lions Club, the dance host, could ever recall a similar incident like this occurring in the past.

Bouley said his group has a three-decade-long history of using the school, which is one of the only suitable spaces to host dances in Auburn, and he said a prohibition on alcohol would be devastating. “It would cripple us,” Bouley said. “That last event, between the Lions Club and the Breast Cancer Foundation, raised about $4,800 in that one evening. They (the dances) are our major fundraiser.”

Bouley said the open-bar policy is an appropriate one in his opinion because the events are only open to adults and are held at times when no students are scheduled to be in the building.

The club took many precautions to prevent drunken driving and other potentially dangerous situations, he said.

“It was a Saturday night with no children around. We hired an Auburn police detail to supervise, and we also offered a free van for people to ride home in,” he said.

But Hobbs said she “had some reservations” about the alcohol policy several years ago when it was revised, and she said that “times have changed” since then.

“I understand that it is good for them (the Lions Club) to have something local, and they can continue to have dances there - they just can’t serve alcohol,” she said. “Our primary responsibility is to the students who use that school.”

Bouley and the board will discuss the issue at a June 10 meeting.