On a sunny day in June, Karyann Parkinson made a fateful choice that could affect her life for years to come: She let her 5-year-old son, Sam, walk alone to a neighborhood pond to collect goose feathers.
Nothing happened to Sam, at least not physically. But for her choice, Parkinson was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a first-degree misdemeanor in Virginia. In August, she was convicted by a local judge after a bench trial in the Williamsburg Juvenile & Domestic Relations District Court and given a six-month suspended jail sentence.
Knowing Parkinson—a then-neighbor and former student—and having attended the trial, it seems she was punished less for making a debatable parenting choice and more for refusing to come to heel when questioned about her decision. It’s not so much that she let Sam collect goose feathers so much as that she did not genuflect to the proper authorities. That makes the case no less of an outrage. Parkinson has found herself in every parents’ nightmare—hence why it made national news. So how, exactly, can a mother be given a suspended jail sentence for simply letting her son go for a walk?
The facts are not in dispute. The Parkinsons live in Ford’s Colony, which describes itself (quite accurately) as a “secure, multigenerational gated community. . . situated on a landscape of golf courses, ponds, wetlands, and woodlands in Williamsburg, Virginia.” That morning, Parkinson—then eight months’ pregnant with her fifth child—took her daily walk on one of Ford’s Colony’s trails. Sam, then 5 years and eight months old, went along, riding his bike. The walking trail is set apart from the development’s speed-controlled roads with occasional marked crosswalks. On their walk, Parkinson observed Sam crossing the road showing adequate precautions, as she had taught him.
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