The picture is priceless
This is true but honestly, I've threatened to do that to my 3rd child when he starts school next year!!!! I'm paranoid as to what phone call I will get at the beginning of the year AND they do outdoor Ed.
Last year beginning of the year...call from the nurse before school even starts, your child got kicked in the eye on the playground -- I go get him & take him to ER since holy cow, the kid didn't just get kicked lightly that was some HUGE, HUGE blow to the eye. He still has a scar from it and he just looked lovely for a couple months while that shiner healed. Mostly his fault for walking BEHIND someone swinging on the monkey bars, the kid swung backwards, so no way for him to have known my kid wasn't thinking.
This year, beginning of the school year -- call from the nurse, your child and another child's head collided in gym, he lost a tooth but we found it -- as the dentist is poking around literally shoving the tooth back into place, found out a 2nd adult tooth was hanging on by a thread. We literally just got done with those repairs last week & it's still a possibility he will end up with root canals or losing those teeth completely by the time he's an adult since they were compromised. The other kid ended up with a staple in his head & back to school that afternoon. OK, I didn't send mine back even though the dentist said I could...I just drugged him up with Tylenol & let him play hooky.
I told him next year I'm wrapping him up with bubble wrap the beginning of the school year. So, I saw that picture and am thinking...yes...that's exactly what I need for August/September next year. Once October gets here we should be good to go.
I figure I'm somewhere in the middle...although if you ask my DD, she will tell you I'm neurotic (DUH...don't all teens think there parents are neurotic??? I seem to recall thinking my parents were a pain when I was her age too!), of course, I have 4 kids and none of them seemed to read the same training manual...keeps me on my toes.
In reality, our area is pretty much an in the middle ground & I love it. It's just the right mixture. They haven't gotten too neurotic yet but still have some stuff in place. Kindergarten kids have to have parents meet them BUT 1st grade becomes a free for all -- the kids can walk home all by themselves if you want them too. They do have crossing guards though for the busier streets. Any of the kids can walk to school by themselves if you want them too, depending on how close I could easily see that (I think in the handbook technically they could leave for lunch too but no way would any kid have time to go home & come back in the allotted time unless they were next door to the school. That may have changed).
By High School if you need your kid to leave early for an appointment or something, you just write a note & you don't have to sign them out at all, they just come out to your car (or if they were old enough, drive themselves). It's up to them to get their passes and things. In grade school/Middle School you do have to walk in & sign them out. Now, if your kid doesn't show up for a class about an hour after it's started & the attendance line wasn't called, you will be getting a call.
It's silly to think a child can't walk from the bus to their home in normal circumstances.
I agree with you. I would MUCH rather see a child overprotected (and perhaps a little messed up from it) than see a child neglected and SEVERELY messed up (or worse) from it! 
Maybe it's a WI thing? 
