N.C. lawmaker bring attention to proposed bill after parents charged in Gastonia child’s death

GASTONIA, N.C. — Legend Jenkins was hit and killed by a car while crossing a Gastonia road to a grocery store in May. He was seven years old.

The driver was not charged in the case, but both of Legend’s parents, Sameule and Jessica Jenkins, were charged with felony involuntary manslaughter and child neglect.

They had sent Legend out to the grocery store with his 10-year-old brother when he stepped out in front of traffic.

Democratic North Carolina State Senator Jay Chaudhuri from Wake County co-sponsored a bill in March to redefine child neglect to exclude “independent activities.”

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The goal is to prevent things such as walking to school or playing outside from being considered child neglect, so long as a “reasonable and prudent parent” would deem it safe, The Charlotte Observer reports.

“We have laws that really promote helicopter parenting,” Chaudhuri said Friday. “The legislation is important to me, both as a parent and a lawmaker… I felt like the legislation reflects a sense of where the laws needed to be, and that is to try to encourage parents to raise resilient, independent and confident children.”

But the bill has not moved forward, the Charlotte Observer reports. Chaudhuri said he hopes that attention to the Jenkins case will bring more attention to his bill.

“We should not have laws on the books that are going to penalize and literally break up this family from a very deliberative and thoughtful decision that they made to allow their two young boys to walk to the local grocery store,” he said.

Read the bill in its entirety here.

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