Maybe some insight into the nearest Knox County elementary school, Gibbs Elementary, will give you some food for thought. The fifth grade teachers at Gibbs work closely with the safety and security team of teachers at the school to establish a list of responsible 5th grade students to do nothing but watch for safe exiting and entering from the car riding areas. The students are trained to watch younger students for running and to make sure that traffic is stopped before students can go to the cars. They are overseen by at least one teacher per grade level and those adults are the ones responsible for ensuring that children are "picked up" by appropriate persons and for questioning any adult who is out of the ordinary and normal routine for that child. Teachers also oversee the safety patrolers, providing guidance if something doesn't appear to be working properly.
Each day, the same teacher calls out the students' names on a megaphone, and she recognizes most of the parents/cars as they come through to pick up their children. This adds to the security of the system.
I'm sure that any system for releasing children isn't completely failproof, but if it is overseen correctly, a safety patrol can only add more eyes to watch for poor judgment.
Let me encourage you to ask questions in a positive tone, and help the principal inform the community about what is being done at Luttrell.
Re: safety patrol at elementary schools....is this the norm??