A Virginia court has handed a law school graduate a suspended six-month jail sentence for allowing her 5-year-old son to walk half a mile alone in their gated community, raising pointed questions about whether the Virginia childhood independence law passed unanimously by the General Assembly in 2023 carries any practical force.
Karyann Parkinson, who was studying for the bar examination and was eight months pregnant at the time, was convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a first-degree misdemeanour, by a James City County court. The judge immediately suspended the sentence, subject to good behaviour and compliance with conditions imposed by Child Protective Services (CPS). The conviction itself stands.
The Charge Under Section 18.2-371
Parkinson was prosecuted under Virginia Code section 18.2-371, which provides that any person aged 18 or over who willfully contributes to, encourages, or causes any act, omission, or condition rendering a child delinquent or in need of services may face criminal liability. The offence is a class 1 misdemeanour carrying a maximum of six months’ imprisonment.
The incident arose in June when Parkinson and her then-youngest child, Sam, went for a bike ride near the pond in their Williamsburg community. When they returned home, Sam asked to walk back to collect more goose feathers. Parkinson said yes. The route covered roughly half a mile along a pavement separated from the road by a ten-foot grass verge. Sam would need to cross two streets with marked crosswalks, crossings his mother says she had watched him navigate safely hundreds of times, including six times that same morning.
A passerby alerted community security. A guard escorted Sam home and told the boy that his mother had done something she should not have, and that dangerous strangers would target him if he was outside alone. Three police cars, three officers, a security vehicle, and two CPS workers arrived at the Parkinson home shortly afterwards.
CPS concluded its investigation with a Level 2 finding for lack of supervision and placed Parkinson on Virginia’s child abuse and neglect registry, where she will remain for seven years. The family has appealed. Under Virginia Administrative Code 22VAC40-705-190, a person found to have committed abuse or neglect may request an informal conference at the local level and a subsequent state-level review to seek amendment of the record.
Virginia Childhood Independence Law and the Legislative Gap
The prosecution sits in direct tension with Virginia’s 2023 legislation. Senate Bill 1367, passed unanimously in the 2023 session, specifies that protected independent activities include travelling to or from nearby locations on foot, playing outdoors, and remaining at home alone. Its companion House bill, HB 1786, clarifies that no child whose parent allows such activities shall automatically be considered abused or neglected. A Fairfax County Family Services summary of the legislation states that reasonable independent childhood activities should not be considered child abuse or neglect.
Jill Vogel, a former Virginia state senator and co-sponsor of the legislation, had previously employed Parkinson as an intern in her law office. The bill Vogel co-sponsored defines neglect as placing a child in serious, obvious danger, a threshold Parkinson’s defence argued was nowhere near met on the facts.
Parkinson herself is not without relevant background. She holds a degree in family science from Brigham Young University, obtained in 2012, and spent three years as a live-in behavioural specialist at a residential treatment centre, where she and her husband oversaw the care of 35 young people. Her husband, Dallin, is a marriage and family therapist. He told CPS workers that children need to be able to take reasonable risks in order to develop without anxiety. Their response, as he recounted it, was that a 5-year-old child can never be unsupervised.
At trial, the security guard, his supervisor, and police officers testified for the prosecution. The CPS worker who attended the scene testified that Sam appeared happy and healthy. Parkinson’s pro bono counsel, Andrew Gordon, argued that the only evidence against her was the child’s age and a catalogue of hypothetical harms that had not materialised. David DeLugas, executive director of ParentsUSA, which provides pro bono legal assistance to parents accused of neglect, dismissed the delinquency framing: ‘Is the kid going to rob banks at 14 because he collected feathers at age 5?’
The consequences of the conviction extend beyond the suspended sentence. Parkinson fears the misdemeanour record may prevent her from obtaining her law licence and from volunteering in her children’s schools. Whether the State Bar of Virginia treats the conviction as a character and fitness issue will be the next critical determination in her case.
