State College Woman Sentenced for Endangering Welfare of Child

A State College woman will spend 10 days in jail followed by 80 days house arrest for endangering the welfare of a child. She was also given five years probation.

Penny Mason, 37, pleaded guilty in June for what prosecutors say was grossly underfeeding her child and withholding food. Mason has been stripped of her parental rights and the child has been adopted by another family.

A judge ordered Mason’s two-year-old child removed from her home in August of 2010. The toddler was taken to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville. Doctors there found that the little girl was extremely underweight and malnourished. Even though the child was two years old, she weighed just 17 pounds.

Since birth, the child had only been seen by a doctor two times. In February of 2009 a doctor diagnosed the baby with failure to thrive and ordered Mason to bring the child back three weeks later. Mason failed to follow those orders for another year and-a-half.

Prosecutors claim the woman hid how little the baby was eating and made it appear she was breast feeding the baby after she stopped producing milk. Medical testing ruled out any physical problems and determined the child failed to gain weight because of inadequate feedings and neglect.

Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller says, “This was an unthinkable situation and while we believe anyone who hurts a child should not be permitted to serve any portion of their sentence on home detention, the child is safe.” Miller says the little girl is now healthy and getting the love and protection she deserves.