JAMES CITY COUNTY, Va. — James City County mother Karryann Parkinson was in trouble Tuesday because of her decision to let her son take a walk to collect feathers.
“We don’t interfere with children if they seem to be doing just fine," Parkinson told CBS News.
The case has drawn national attention.
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“I gave him permission to go. I told him, go there, come right back," Parkinson recalled.
That’s the decision Parkinson told CBS News led her to be charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She was eventually convicted and, as of Tuesday, was on Virginia’s Child Abuse and Neglect Registry.
“We just expected as soon as this gets in front of a prosecutor actually looking at it, and a judge, this is all going to go away," said Parkinson.
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In June, Parkinson let her five-year-old son walk unattended to a neighborhood pond half a mile away to pick up feathers. A neighborhood security officer saw her son and brought him home. Police were called, and that led to her being charged and convicted.
The case has ignited a debate about parenting.
“I don’t think that the conviction itself is out of bounds. Should it have been handled another way? Perhaps," said Virginia Beach attorney Sonny Stallings.
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Stallings said, in his words, the Devil’s in the details, including where the family lives.
“Suppose she lived in Bedford County and they lived on a farm and they told the five-year-old to go check on the chickens and the chickens were a half-mile away and there was a pond near. Would that be child abuse? Probably not," Stallings said. "I’m sure there are rural areas in this state where five-year-olds go out a distance away all the time and the parents know it. But, it’s a different lifestyle. In a gated community in Williamsburg, probably not acceptable."
Parkinson has appealed her conviction.
Williamsburg-James City County’s commonwealth attorney declined to comment on the case but said, as of Tuesday, it was scheduled to go before a judge September 16 to have a trial date set.
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