A Virginia mother of five was convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for letting her five-year-old son take a short walk in their gated community alone.
Karyann Parkinson received a suspended six-month jail sentence and placement on Virginia’s child abuse and neglect registry after someone spotted her son Sam walking unaccompanied through their community—described as having “24-hour security, a 25-mph speed limit, and three golf courses.”
At the time of the incident three months ago, Parkinson, her husband, and their children lived in a gated community in Williamsburg while she was studying at William and Mary Law School. Both parents are well-suited for parenting: Karyann holds a degree in family science, and her husband is a marriage and family therapist. Together, they oversaw the care of 35 girls at a residential treatment center for three years. By June of this year, they had four children, with another child nearly due.
Parkinson took a break from bar-exam studies to bike with Sam. They stopped at a pond half a mile from home so he could collect goose feathers. When they returned, Sam requested permission to walk back to the pond for more feathers—a request she granted.
A passerby noticed Sam on his walk and contacted security, which dispatched a guard to take him home. The guard confronted Parkinson, called law enforcement, and later testified against her in court. According to reports, the guard told Sam his mother had allowed him to be snatched by a stranger and then delivered a stern reprimand to Parkinson.
Parkinson stated she permitted Sam to walk along a sidewalk separated from streets by 10 feet of grass, crossing two intersections with crosswalks—a route he had safely navigated hundreds of times that morning, including six times. Despite this, authorities charged her with contributing to the delinquency of a minor after the incident.
Parkinson’s husband later told investigators that children need reasonable risks to avoid anxiety. Child Protective Services (CPS) countered that “a 5-year-old child can never be unsupervised.” Both parties were incorrect about Virginia law: A statute enacted in 2023 explicitly protects parents’ rights to let children walk unattended, defining neglect as placing a child in serious and obvious danger.
Despite this legal protection, Karyann was investigated by police and CPS. She received a “Level 2 finding” of lack of supervision, leading to seven years on Virginia’s child abuse and neglect registry. Police charged her with contributing to delinquency—a move Parkinson claims was intended to circumvent the 2023 law.
The court convicted Karyann of this misdemeanor with a suspended six-month sentence. The conviction remains on her record, potentially barring her from volunteering at children’s schools or obtaining her law license.
