A Virginia mother is appealing a criminal conviction and her seven-year placement on the state's child abuse and neglect registry after her 5-year-old son was found walking alone in their gated community. Karyann Parkinson stated her son, Sam, was on a familiar neighborhood path near a pond to collect goose feathers when a security guard encountered him and brought him home.
Police and Child Protective Services became involved in the incident. 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. The conviction also led to her inclusion on Virginia’s Child Abuse and Neglect Central Registry for seven years.
Parkinson explained that she did not send her son to play at the pond but rather to gather feathers on a path he knew well. "I know that a lot of people have seen the headlines and seen ‘5-year-old alone at a pond.’ And I think if I saw that in isolation, I’d probably be alarmed, too,” she told Fox News. "But what this was, was a 5-year-old on a pathway that he’s very familiar with in his neighborhood that he loves, the only place that he can remember ever living."
The most challenging consequence for Parkinson is the seven-year registry placement, which prohibits her from volunteering in her son's classroom until he enters sixth grade. She expressed a desire to move away from parenting based on fear and anxieties about the unknown.
Parkinson reported that her son was initially “pretty shaken up” by the authorities' intervention but has since recovered. He reportedly asked about his ability to independently travel to activities like swim practice or tennis. "Now it’s just a blip on his radar. It’s not really a part of his life anymore,” she said.