A 5-year-old’s neighborhood walk shouldn’t be a crime
September 11, 2026
When Karyann Parkinson’s 5-year-old son, Sam, asked if he could walk about a half mile to their neighborhood pond to collect goose feathers, she didn’t have a hard time saying yes. It was June. They’d walked the route before, including that morning. Her son is mature, and their surroundings are part of what the homeowners association describes as a “secure, multi-generational gated community.” The risks were low, and yet Karyann is fast becoming famous for what came next.
After Sam left the house, a resident saw him and alerted the community’s security. A guard took him back home and questioned his mother about her parenting decisions. When Karyann refused to concede that she’d done anything wrong, the guard summoned a policeman. When Karyann refused to engage, the officer summoned Child Protective Services. Soon after, three cops, two CPS workers and the security guard were on the scene. Karyann later told me that one of their cruisers blocked the driveway — something she assumed was to prevent her, then eight months pregnant with her fifth child, from becoming a flight risk.
