Virginia Mom Speaks Out After 6 Month Jail Conviction Over 5-Year-Old’s Solo Walk

A Virginia mother who let her 5-year-old son walk alone to a nearby pond has been convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Karyann Parkinson said her son, Samuel, wanted to collect goose feathers at a pond about half a mile from their home in Ford’s Colony, a gated community in Williamsburg.

“I gave him permission to go,” Parkinson told CBS News. “I told him, ‘Go there. Come right back.’”

A community security guard encountered Samuel before he reached the pond and brought him home. Parkinson told CBS that police and Child Protective Services later became involved, and she was charged about two weeks afterward.

Virginia Law Addresses When Kids Can Be Left Unsupervised

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A Williamsburg and James City County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court judge convicted Parkinson of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and imposed a six-month suspended jail sentence, according to court records reviewed by The Washington Post.

Virginia law adds an unusual wrinkle to the case. Under the state’s definition of an abused or neglected child, a child is not considered abused or neglected solely because a parent allows independent activity without adult supervision if the activity is appropriate for the child’s age, maturity and abilities, and the lack of supervision is not so grossly negligent that it thus endangers the child.

The law specifically lists walking or bicycling to nearby locations and playing outdoors among the independent activities that, on their own, do not necessarily constitute abuse or neglect.

The Case is Not Over Yet

Parkinson was convicted under a separate Virginia statute covering adults who willfully contribute to conditions that render a child delinquent, in need of supervision, abused or neglected.

Parkinson says she plans to appeal.

Separately, Parkinson told CBS that she will remain on Virginia’s child abuse and neglect registry for seven years. The Washington Post reports that she is also appealing the social-services finding that led to that listing.

“I think that, ideally, we have a conversation, we see that a kid is confident and capable, and we leave it at that,” Parkinson told CBS.