Virginia mother receives suspended jail term after 5-year-old walks alone to pond

Karyann Parkinson, then eight months pregnant and studying for the Virginia bar, let her five-year-old son Sam walk about a half-mile from their gated Williamsburg home to collect goose feathers near the community pond. After a neighbor reported the boy, a security guard escorted him back and police were summoned; Child Protective Services opened a case and later added Parkinson to the state child-abuse and neglect registry for seven years.

She faced a charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a first-degree misdemeanor, and a James City County judge convicted her, imposing a six-month jail sentence that was immediately suspended pending good behavior and CPS compliance. Parkinson, who has a background in family services and previously interned at the Institute for Justice, contends the charge sidesteps Virginia’s 2023 reasonable childhood independence law. ParentsUSA founder David DeLugas criticized the prosecution as an overreach, and the conviction may bar her from school volunteering and jeopardize her law license.