A Williamsburg, Virginia mother has been convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor after she allowed her 5-year-old son to walk unsupervised a few blocks within their gated community to collect goose feathers from a pond.
Karyann Parkinson, 36, a mother of five, was convicted last week of the Class 1 misdemeanor, which under Virginia law is punishable by up to one year in jail. A judge sentenced her to six months in jail but suspended the sentence. Parkinson was also placed on the state’s child abuse and neglect registry for seven years after Child Protective Services issued what is known as a “Level 2 finding” against her.
According to Parkinson, the incident occurred on a June morning after she and her son, identified as Sam, returned from a bike ride during which they had stopped so he could pick up feathers, described as his favorite activity. When they got home, the boy asked to go back to the pond, and Parkinson agreed to let him go alone.
Parkinson told Reason that the walk was short, along a sidewalk separated from the road by grass, in their community of Ford’s Colony, which she said has 24-hour security, a 25-mph speed limit and three golf courses. She said her son would have had to cross only two crosswalks, something she had watched him do safely on previous occasions.
As the boy made his way to the pond, a passerby noticed him alone and reported it to the gated community’s security. A guard escorted the child home and confronted his mother. Parkinson said she asked the guard where in the homeowners’ association rules it stated that a child could not walk unsupervised. She said she was also upset that the guard told her son his mother had done something wrong and that “bad people” could try to take him if he were alone, telling Reason, “This scared the cr** out of him.”
The guard told Parkinson it was illegal for her to leave her son unsupervised and called police. When an officer arrived, Parkinson said she told him, “I don’t have any interest in talking to you.” The officer then called for backup, and two additional officers responded. Police also contacted Child Protective Services.
Parkinson’s husband, Dallin, came home after being called and told police and CPS personnel, according to his own account, “Kids need to be able to take reasonable risks in order to grow up non-anxious.” He said CPS responded that “a 5-year-old child can never be unsupervised.”
At the time, Sam was the youngest of the couple’s children, and Parkinson was eight months pregnant with her fifth child. She holds a degree in family science from Brigham Young University, earned in 2012, and previously worked as a family life educator and as a live-in behavioral specialist at a residential treatment center, where she and her husband, a marriage and family therapist, oversaw the care of 35 girls. Parkinson also recently graduated from law school and previously worked in the office of former Virginia State Senator Jill Vogel, who co-sponsored the state’s Reasonable Childhood Independence bill.
That bill, passed in 2023, narrowed Virginia’s neglect laws, which nonprofit LetGrow said had previously been “so vague and broad that parents were getting investigated simply for letting their kids walk or play outside.” Despite the existence of that law, Parkinson was still charged and convicted. She told Reason she believes authorities pursued the misdemeanor charge as a way to work around the Reasonable Childhood Independence law.
Contributing to the delinquency of a minor generally refers to an adult’s actions that cause, encourage, or allow a child to engage in behavior that is illegal, unsafe, or falls outside accepted norms of supervision, as defined under state law. It is typically charged as a misdemeanor in Virginia.
Parkinson has appealed the CPS finding and her placement on the child abuse and neglect registry. As she has been convicted but is contesting the outcome, she is entitled to the presumption of innocence with respect to any further proceedings. She told Reason she is concerned the conviction could prevent her from volunteering at her children’s schools and from obtaining a license to practice law following her recent graduation from law school.
Source: Dailymail.com
