A Virginia mother is challenging a misdemeanor conviction and her subsequent placement on the state's child abuse and neglect registry after her 5-year-old son was found walking alone within their gated community. Karyann Parkinson stated that her son, Sam, was on a familiar path in their neighborhood to collect goose feathers when a security guard encountered him and brought him home.
Following the incident, police and Child Protective Services became involved. Parkinson, who was eight months pregnant at the time, received a suspended six-month jail sentence, but the conviction for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a first-degree misdemeanor, remains. She was also placed on Virginia's Child Abuse and Neglect Central Registry for seven years.
Parkinson explained that while she understands the alarm associated with a child being alone near water, the situation was misrepresented. "I didn't send him to play at the pond," she told "Fox & Friends Weekend." "I sent him down the path that happens to go past the pond to collect goose feathers." She believes the narrative of a child alone at a pond in isolation can cause alarm, but emphasized the familiarity of the path and the neighborhood to her son.
She described the seven-year registry placement as the most difficult aspect of the ruling, which will prevent her from volunteering in her son's classroom until he enters sixth grade. Parkinson expressed a desire for parenting to move away from fear and excessive concern over unlikely dangers.
Parkinson stated that her son was initially shaken by the encounter but has since recovered. She had to reassure him that he had done nothing wrong, and he later asked about his ability to ride his bike to activities like swim practice or tennis. She added that the incident is now a minor memory for him.