Climate of Fear or Sketchy Dad?

I'm lucky enough to live within walking distance of the high school where I teach and the elementary school where my kids are students.

Usually my wife meets them after school and walks them home, but sometimes it's my turn.  One day, as I was walking from the high school to the elementary school, a friend slowed down in his car and offered me a lift. I hopped in and he dropped me off across the street from the elementary school.  Since I had my school issued laptop and the wifi signal is the same district-wide, I took my laptop out in front of the school in order to do some work.  I'm now 10 minutes early and progress reports need to be sent out, so I perch my laptop on the corner of the building and start working.

After a few minutes, the school secretary appears next to me and says, "Excuse me, can I help you?".  I look up, totally confused, as there are at least a dozen parents now standing around waiting for the dismissal in order to get their kid.  So, I say, somewhat uncertainly, "Uhh, I'm here to pick up my daughter?"
"And what's her name?"
"Isabelle.." (for the record, I know for a fact there are at least a dozen Isabelles of some flavor in that building)
At this point the secretary is close enough to see my district-issued laptop and ID badge.  She gets a bit embarrassed and stops asking questions.  I lean in close and whisper, conspiratorially:
"Do I look suspicious?:
Super-flustered, she goes back inside.
A minute later she pops out a side door and talks to me from the side of the building where the gaggle of moms hanging out near the front door can't see her.
"Um, I'm so sorry about that - it was the fact that you were dropped off by a car that then drove away.  Usually parents either drive or walk and are not dropped off..."
We laugh and I go back to work.

But...
....why didn't one of the parents come up and talk to me directly?
Why were they so worried anyway?
Why didn't they mind their own business?

Climate of fear.

Parents worry about their kids all the time.  Worry about what we feed them, about the air they breath, the fabrics they wear, the words they hear.  Everything in life is a potential mis-step that could ruin their lives.  Every random element in the world is probably going to kill them or mess them up.  People call the cops when they see kids playing in a park unsupervised.  We're scared to let our kids walk home by themselves at ages we did the trek by ourselves back in the day not because we're worried about what will happen to them -  we're worried that other adults might turn us in for being "negligent parents" or seeing "abandoned kids.

Or, maybe, I just look sketchy and should dress nicer...