A lot of the points already made are very good responses.
This isn't so much for the students protection as it is to prevent FIRST from being bombarded with lawsuits. While it is nice to have the preliminary screening, in my opinion it is more of a hassle than it is worth. Of course, back to the legal issues, it most likely is here to stay. Any court would see that FIRST took reasonable measures to prevent any harm and would most likely dismiss the case...