Mother-of-five charged after letting her 5-year-old child go on a walk
A woman has been charged and convicted after allowing her five-year-old son to walk alone to a pond in their neighbourhood.
On 5 June, Karyann Parkinson, 36, went for a walk with her son, Sam, through their gated community in Williamsburg, Virginia.
The pair strolled past ponds and crossed the street around six times, with five-year-old Sam riding his bike ahead of his mum and back again.
When they got home, Sam wanted to head back out to look for more.
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Parkinson, who was eight months pregnant with her fifth child at the time, said she allowed him to make the walk, which was about half a mile, alone, as she and her husband, Dallin, feel that children should be able to 'encounter reasonable risks, to do anything that they feel confident doing within safe parameters'.
"I know what he’s capable of," Parkinson told The Washington Post.
She started making lunch and, around 20 to 30 minutes later, Sam returned home visibly shaken.
A security guard accompanied him after a neighbour reportedly spotted the child outside alone and called for help, according to Parkinson.
She said she maintained that Sam was safe and had the right to walk around the neighbourhood by himself, but the guard disagreed, telling her she had broken the law and called the police.
Around two weeks later, police returned to the family home with an arrest warrant.
Parkinson was convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and sentenced to six months of suspended jail time.
She rejected a withheld finding because accepting it would have meant acknowledging that what she had done was a crime.
"That would have been saying that what I had done was a crime, and … that would’ve violated my principles and my convictions as a parent," Parkinson explained. "And I think it also would have let down other parents who need to know that normal childhood experiences are not a crime."
Parkinson, who is appealing the conviction, also claims she and Sam were placed on Virginia’s Abuse and Neglect Registry for seven years following a substantiated finding against her.
The case has divided opinion online, with some arguing that sending a five-year-old to a pond alone was reckless, while others say the authorities went too far.
Parkinson said the ordeal left her crying and fearing that her children could be taken away.
"I always loved letting my kids climb trees and go exploring and to, you know, experiment with their surroundings and feel confident in this world," the mum said, adding that she wants her children to know that 'the world’s a good place' and they can do things on their own.
But 'this just made my whole world sort of come crashing down', she said.
Her lawyer, Andrew S. Gordon, believes both sides acted with good intentions.
"We just disagree on whether this is criminal," he said. "And once the criminal justice machine turns on, it can be very hard to turn that machine off."
Tyla has reached out to the James City County Police Department for comment.
Rhiannon Ingle