Marla Demita could hear the screams of her 9-month-old son as soon as she entered Little Blessings Daycare in Yazoo City. When she got to the room where he was kept, baby Dean was crying inconsolably – unusual behavior for him.

She said that most days, Dean “lights up” with a smile when he sees her. But on the afternoon of May 20, “it’s like he looked straight through me, like he didn’t know who I was.” 

The troubling behavior escalated that night. Demita shared a video with Mississippi Today that showed her husband Johnathon holding Dean while standing, bouncing up and down to try to comfort their child. But Dean screamed and thrashed from side to side. After a call with his pediatrician offered no solutions, the parents took Dean to the Children’s of Mississippi hospital in Jackson. 

Dean jerked his head from side to side and screamed the entire hour and a half drive from their home, another video shows.

A drug test administered at the hospital showed Dean had methamphetamine in his system. A doctor told Demita the baby had ingested the substance somewhere between noon and 4 p.m., she told Mississippi Today. Dean was at Little Blessings Daycare during that time.

The Mississippi Department of Health, which is responsible for regulating and licensing day care centers, fined Little Blessings $50 after the incident. The agency could not confirm the baby ingested methamphetamine while at day care, according to its investigative report.

The department cited Little Blessings because the center’s director, Lisa Martin, did not report what happened as required by agency regulations. Martin did not respond to questions for this article. 

Demita said the $50 fine felt like a “punch in the gut” after what happened to her son, who is now 10 months old.

She said he screamed as though in terrible pain from 7:45 p.m. on the day of the incident until 4 the next morning.

“And I’m not talking about fussy crying. I’m talking about blood curling screams,” Demita said. “It was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.”

The Health Department did not respond to Mississippi Today’s detailed questions about the investigation into the incident and past allegations of abuse at Little Blessings. Two complaints filed with the agency in 2023 and 2024 accused workers and the director of “whooping” and hitting children and locking them in dark rooms.

Mississippi Today obtained the documents detailing the earlier allegations through a public records request. None are available on the Health Department’s public database, a tool parents can use to research a child care facility’s history. It is unclear why. 

The Health Department launched the database following a 2016 investigation by The Hechinger Report and The Clarion-Ledger found that, unlike other states, Mississippi had no such system. 

The agency submitted a statement to Mississippi Today by email calling what happened to Dean “distressing” to both the Demita family and others, and said it is coordinating with law enforcement and the state Department of Child Protection Services. 

“Consequently, the investigation and determination of abuse or neglect by a caregiver fall under the authority of those agencies,” the statement said. “Our goal is to ensure that children are safe in licensed childcare programs.”

When the Demitas arrived at the emergency room with Dean, the baby was inconsolable and “tachycardic,” or had an irregularly fast heart rhythm, records state. 

The medical staff thought he had a fracture and checked him for hair tourniquet – a painful condition that occurs when a piece of hair wraps tightly around a baby’s finger, toe or other body part, restricting blood flow. 

“Patient placed in C-collar. Patient cried for the upwards of 4 hours straight,” the records say. 

The hospital emergency room ran a battery of tests, including a drug screen. Dean’s initial screen came back positive for amphetamines.

A follow-up confirmation drug test, a more specific and accurate screen, was ordered. Demita received results of that test about a week later, which showed the baby tested positive for methamphetamine, a lab-made stimulant commonly known as crystal meth. The drug can cause paranoia, anxiety, rapid heart rate, irregular heartbeat or death. 

Dean stayed in the hospital about 12 hours. Before he was released, Marla and Johnathon Demita submitted to drug screens themselves, and medical records show those were negative. 

His mother said for the next week, Dean remained irritable and had little appetite. 

She has since pulled Dean out of day care altogether. He is an active and crawling baby, and he spends the day with Demita at a veterinary clinic where she is the office manager. She said it is stressful. 

“So, I’m having to do my everyday job and keep up with a child all day from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.,” she said. “He has to sit in a playpen 90% of the day.”

Day care’s corrective plan involves ‘shoe coverings’

The Health Department’s investigation consisted of interviews with the day care director and caregivers, according to records obtained by Mississippi Today. Two investigators with the  Health Department also noted they reviewed pictures of formula and breastmilk bottles in the facility refrigerator.

Notes showed the day care did not have cameras in the rooms, which surprised Yazoo City Police Department officers who came to the facility. 

The Little Blessings director, Martin, told health officials a police officer told her “it could be something as (sic) a someone coming into the classroom and has residue on their shoes,” Health Department records show. The director would be “purchasing shoe coverings for individuals” that enter and exit the infant room as part of its corrective plan approved by the agency, the records say. 

Health Department officials did not answer Mississippi Today’s questions about whether the agency reached out to the baby’s medical team, other parents of children at the facility or former employees of Little Blessings.

Demita said after she told the Health Department what happened to her son, she did not hear back from anyone at the agency.

Yazoo City Police Chief Terry Gann on June 11 said the investigation continues, but he had been unable to reach Demita. After Mississippi Today relayed Gann’s cell phone number to Demita, the two met the next day to discuss the case.

Gann was unaware of past allegations of abuse against the day care, and told Mississippi Today the day care was closed down. A photo taken of the facility on June 12 around 5 p.m. showed what appears to be parents picking up children.

Health Department records contain two complaints accusing the day care workers and director of abuse in 2023 and 2024. 

“They hit children on the hands and butts and grab them very roughly,” said a March 2023 complaint from a former employee of Little Blessings. 

Another complaint accused employees of locking children in dark rooms. The agency, after interviewing the employees and director, could not substantiate either complaint. 

However, video footage later received by the Health Department revealed a day care teacher threatening to bite a child, and Martin, the director, was heard referencing “the ones that do get spanked.” The documents do not specify whether the video footage was from the facility’s cameras or if someone submitted footage to the agency.

Martin did not respond to Mississippi Today’s questions about Demita’s son and past allegations against her and other employees of the day care, including one asking what she meant by her statement. 

The facility’s corrective action included holding a meeting with caregivers about not hitting or spanking children. The Health Department provided “technical assistance” to the day care on discipline and positive redirection, according to records. 

No fine or other action was administered, records show.

Demita continues keeping her son by her side at work. 

“I’m taking it day by day,” she said. “I know he won’t be going back to a day care.”