When 27-year-old Donquarious Ridley and 25-year-old Raven Barner climbed onto a school bus on the morning of October 31, they weren’t there for a parent-teacher meeting. Police say the Greenwood, Indiana parents — believing their son had been bullied by classmates — stormed a grade-school bus, confronted children, and unleashed a terrifying scene of violence.
According to the probable-cause affidavit, the bus’s interior camera captured the whole incident. Ridley and Barner boarded without permission, witnesses told investigators. The bus driver had not allowed them on the bus — but the couple pushed past that boundary anyway.
Barner, the boy’s stepmother, allegedly began by screaming at two children, threatening one directly: “I’ll beat his a—.” She also reportedly told the boy she would get her stepson to “beat his a—,” and urged her son to start “an altercation.” When the driver stepped between Barner and one child, Barner struck two young passengers — one hit “inadvertently,” according to police.
It didn’t get better. Ridley — the boy’s father — allegedly egged on the violence, telling his son to strike another child. The boy complied. Video shows Ridley then throwing that child to the ground, allowing his son to repeatedly hit him. Afterward, Ridley shoved yet another child back into a seat hard enough that the child’s head hit the side of the bus.
Officers later found Ridley and Barner in their car nearby and pulled them over. Both were arrested and booked into the Johnson County Jail. Ridley now faces two counts of battery on a child under 14 and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor; Barner faces two counts of battery on a child under 14.
Court dates have been set. Ridley is due in court on Dec. 1, Barner on Dec. 4.
Families who entrust school buses to safely shuttle their children to and from class now have reason to worry. The footage — captured by a bus camera — shows a shocking breach of trust: not only did two adults board without permission, but they also turned a bus ride into a battleground over alleged bullying.
Despite their anger and fear for their son, Ridley and Barner’s actions spiraled. The punishment they have inflicted on innocent children can hardly be justified, even if bullying was real. And now, they face serious charges for it.
