MISHAWAKA — After picking up her 15-year-old daughter at the Juvenile Justice Center, Tina Forrest said she was disgusted to find ant bites covering the girl’s body.

The teen even had bites in her scalp, her mother said, and her lip was swollen twice its size by what she believes was another bite.

Now Amber Weaver is being hospitalized at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Mishawaka with what medical staff members confirmed Monday was a staph infection in her lip. Forrest is furious after her daughter told her about a rampant ant problem in the JJC girl’s ward.

However, Bill Bruinsma, executive director of the JJC, said that the facility does not have an ant problem and that he has not heard of any recent reports of ant bites at the facility.

He could not comment specifically about Weaver’s medical history, citing confidentiality laws.

But lying in her hospital bed Monday afternoon, Amber Weaver described both large and small black ants climbing on discarded clothes at the JJC and girls complaining of bites to staff members.

“They were in our beds when we woke up,” she said. “One girl was itching. Some of them were complaining real bad.”

Weaver was supposed to serve 14 days in the JJC for truancy, her mom said, but was let out early on Friday.

Forrest said she first noticed the bites on her daughter when she visited her on Thursday and called her daughter’s probation officer about letting her out early.

She said he told her that was impossible, but on Friday the girl was released.

Bruinsma confirmed that Weaver was let out early because of over-crowding at the facility. A call to Weaver’s probation officer was not returned Monday afternoon.

Bruinsma checked with his nurses Monday and said they had not noticed any residents suffering from insect bites recently.

Laundry is done frequently at the facility, he said, and the center sprays every two weeks for insects.

“We haven’t had a big issue with it,” he said. “There are spiders once in awhile.”

He added that staff members reported that there is one female resident who enjoys feeding ants and leaves food inside cracks in the floor for them.

Staff members are discouraging her from doing so, he said.

Forrest said after seeing her daughter on Friday, she immediately took her to the doctor where the teen was given antibiotics and sent home with orders to return if the swelling increased.

On Saturday, Forrest rushed her daughter back to the hospital after her lip grew worse and the girl was placed on an IV. Test results that came back Monday showed Weaver had a staph infection.

“I was so mad,” Forrest said. “(JJC residents) don’t deserve to live like that.”

Staph infections can develop various ways, including through insect bites, according to Kelly Jolliff, St. Joseph County Health Department epidemiologist.

Staph is a bacteria that exists on almost everyone, but turns into an infection when it gets under the skin, she explained.

Open wounds and broken skin are especially susceptible to the staph infections, Jolliff said, and the infection can be passed to others through bodily fluids or by direct contact with the infected person.

Weaver said she went to the nurse four times during her stay at the JJC and was given over-the-counter medication.

Bruinsma said that in general, residents sometimes come into the facility already suffering from infectious ailments and that officials cannot always be certain where they picked up the illnesses.

Meanwhile, Forrest waits with her daughter inside her Mishawaka hospital room while she recovers.

The girl’s lip is still puffy, although her mom says it’s gone down significantly since their arrival. After being in the JJC for truancy, she is now missing more school while in the hospital.

Forrest has not spoken to anyone at the JJC, but says she plans to pursue further action after the incident.