Virginia mom placed on child abuse registry for 7 years after letting 5-year-old walk alone

A Virginia mom is appealing a criminal charge and her placement on the state’s child abuse and neglect registry after her five-year-old son was stopped by security while walking alone through their gated community.Karyann Parkinson said her son, Sam, had been walking along a familiar neighborhood path past a pond to collect goose feathers when a security guard encountered him and brought him home.Police and Child Protective Services became involved, and Parkinson, who was eight months pregnant at the time, had her six-month jail sentence suspended, but the charge remains.Karyann Parkinson appears with some of her children in this family photo provided to Fox News.(Karyann Parkinson)She was convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a first-degree misdemeanor, and was also placed on Virginia's Child Abuse and Neglect Central Registry for seven years.PARENTS SPEAK OUT AFTER SON WITH AUTISM, 6, WAS SUSPENDED FOR BITING SANDWICH INTO SHAPE OF GUNParkinson said she understands the shock people feel hearing about a child alone near a body of water, but sought to clarify what happened that day.Karyann Parkinson speaks with authorities in their gated community after her five-year-old son, Samuel, was brought home when he was found out for a walk by himself.

(Karyann Parkinson)"I didn't send him to play at the pond," she told "Fox & Friends Weekend." "I sent him down the path that happens to go past the pond to collect goose feathers...I know that a lot of people have seen the headlines and seen 'five-year-old alone at a pond.' And I think if I saw that in isolation, I'd probably be alarmed, too."SAN FRANCISCO DAD QUESTIONED BY PARK RANGERS FOR TEACHING HIS OWN KIDS TENNIS AT PUBLIC COURT"But what this was, was a five-year-old on a pathway that he's very familiar with in his neighborhood that he loves, the only place that he can remember ever living.

And it just got turned into this whole situation where a lot of people were suddenly intervening and fee...