DaytonDailyNews.com

There are crazy, irrational people running loose in my suburban Kettering neighborhood, and people are scared.

But here's the odd part. It's the scared people who are crazy and irrational. I know because I'm one of them. So are many parents.

Here's what happened during the first week of school.

My plan was to drop 8-year-old Kate at school on the way to work. There was a red light as I approached the school, so I dropped her on the sidewalk with instructions to cross at the crosswalk and walk maybe 100 steps to school.

But Kate didn't make it to the corner before the light changed, so I traveled on through the light toward work as she remained standing on the corner.

What I did next was certifiably nuts.

I went around the block. I came back to the same light and watched to make sure Kate crossed the street and walked in the door to school.

I should know better.

Two years ago, when Kate was in kindergarten and her older sister was in second grade, I started a wildfire on Get on the Bus, our Dayton Daily News education blog, with a simple question — would it be OK for them to walk to school alone for six-tenths of a mile from our house to school?

"DON'T EVEN CONSIDER IT!" one of more than 41 comments screamed. "It is too dangerous in our times to allow these young children to walk alone. If you care for your children, walk with them."

But are these really extraordinarily dangerous times?

There is no question that bad things happen. Erica Baker's disappearance in Kettering almost a decade ago is a haunting reminder that it can happen anywhere. But then there was the scary story recently of a girl kidnapped from her front yard in Huber Heights. That story turned out to be a hoax.

Parents absolutely should take precautions. But we should also be rational. And we are not.

In a 2007 U.S. Census survey of parents, one in five parents said they try to keep their children indoors "as much as possible" to protect them from harm. One in five! Those numbers held steady across all types of neighborhoods and communities — urban, suburban, rural, high-crime and low-crime. There are certainly places where extra vigilance is absolutely necessary, and more parental attention in general is certainly better than less.

But the Census survey suggests a high degree of overkill by many parents. Statistics also tell us it is not nearly that dangerous on most of our sidewalks and streets.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports 2,185 children are reported missing each day in the United States. But read further and you'll find that nearly all of those kids are found quickly, and most turn out to be with a family member nearby.

Some of those are the terrifying "stereotypical kidnappings," children taken by strangers for more than a day, taken far from home or killed. But only a very small percentage of them.

The center reports that the average is 115 such kidnappings a year.

That is a tiny number. Think about it. There are 75 million children in this country. This means the chance that any one kid will be kidnapped is roughly one in 750,000. By comparison, the chance that a person will be hit by lightning in any given year is one in 700,000. The chance of dying in a plane crash in the average year is one in 391,581, according to the National Safety Council.

We all take cover when there is a storm, but do any of us really think there's much chance we'll be hit by lightning? And be honest. If you knew someone who refused to get on an airplane for fear it would crash, you'd shake your head at how irrational he is.

Still, I drive around the block to make sure Kate makes it 100 steps from the corner to the schoolhouse in broad daylight.

That's how I know I'm insane.

Scott Elliott is an editorial writer for the Dayton Daily News. He may be reached at 225-2485 or by e-mail at elliott@DaytonDailyNews.com.