Except I "like" that Halsin can kill the kids since it adds to his character even if it's upsetting.
I can appreciate where you're coming from, and it certainly gives credence to his statement that he'll not be able to stop himself from killing goblins if you take him with you. Which surely is an appalling lack of control for a senior druid, but perhaps we'll get some more info about the beserker bear later!
But it's a step too far for me, and though it involves metagaming I now find it really hard to release him knowing what might happen. Perhaps if there were a way to save the kids, for example to have an option to say "I'm freeing this bear, so you'd better start running now" in the dialogue that triggers when you approach, which would keep them out of the battle entirely and let them run in real time, or at least give them initiative to go first which would put them outside Halsin's reach but still give you the opportunity to stop them after they made it clear they were calling for the guards.
Though I confess I haven't really tried to see if there is a way to stop him killing them as I never saw it happen until this patch, so maybe there already are options I just haven't explored.
