DENVER – Colorado’s high schools can again sell diet pop to students after the State Board of Education voted to lift a seven-year ban in a contentious meeting featuring some rowdy parent protestors Wednesday.

The 4-3 vote to lift the ban followed lobbying by Colorado Department of Education officials to cut regulations for schools to align with federal school beverage standards as well as efforts by health advocates and parents in recent weeks to convince them to keep it in place, Chalkbeat.org reports.

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

Advocates for the ban amassed 2,400 signatures calling on board members to keep it, but the board ultimately voted on party lines to eliminate the provision, though individual school districts and schools can still prohibit diet drinks in school vending machines and stores.

Board chairman Steve Durham told those at the meeting he doesn’t believe it’s the state’s responsibility to regulate children’s health, the Denver Post reports.

“There is no better regulator than a parent,” Durham said.

“All this is being dealt with on a local level,” said Brent Craig, nutrition services director for Douglas County schools.

Craig, Greeley school district’s nutrition coordinator Danielle Bock, and other education officials advocated for local control over school food decisions, a position that contrasts with the state’s movement in recent years toward regulating the public’s health habits.

“Nutrition is a community based decision and we need (community) input to help us make decisions,” Bock said.

The Wednesday meeting was attended by numerous parents and public health advocates who wanted board members to prevent students from having access to diet pop at school, including a group of Hispanic parents known as Padres y Jovenes Unidos.

MORE NEWS: How to prepare for face-to-face classes

“Moments after the State Board voted, a group of parents organized by the activist group Padres y Jovenes Unidos stormed the chambers to voice frustration with the outcome,” Chalkbeat reports.

“Please think about the students,” parent Gloria Borunda exclaimed. “Think about the future of the students.”

Ana Munoz, another parent of two obese kids in Denver Public Schools, said she needs help from the school system to motivate her children to make healthy choices.

[xyz-ihs snippet=”NEW-In-Article-Rev-Content-Widget”]

“We need help,” she said. “I don’t understand why we are making this change. We were fine before. This is just another battle we have to take on.”

The meeting also featured testimony from Greg Hill, executive director of the Colorado Dental Association, who pointed out that pop is bad for students’ teeth, and oral health can impact academic health, the Post reports.

Other groups that lobbied against the loosened restriction include the American Heart Association, the Colorado Health Foundation, the Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation, LiveWell Colorado, and the Colorado Children’s Campaign.

Parents protesting the board’s decision were eventually forced out of the meeting by police.

According to the Post:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture took three years to develop its standards that allow for diet sodas in high school. But those standards are a baseline for local school districts, which can produce even stricter rules for food and drink, said Kevin Concannon, the USDA’s undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services.

Colorado is unusual in that it’s one of the few states that find the new federal rules too lax for schools, he said. “In most cases, states had to strengthen their standards to meet the federal standards. In Colorado’s case, they are going in the opposite direction.”

The State Board of Education initially imposed a complete ban on all forms of pop in 2008. Last year, Colorado also banned all pop, flavored milks and sports drinks for kids in child care, Chalkbeat reports.