Insets (left to right): Donquarious Ridley and Raven Barner (Johnson County Jail). Background: The apartment complex in Greenwood, Ind., where the fight took place (Google Maps).
The father of an Indiana child will be spending an extended timeout in prison after egging his son on in a school bus fight.
Donquarious Ridley, 28, pleaded guilty on Monday to contributing to the delinquency of a minor and two counts of battery on a person less than 14 and was sentenced to two years in prison. The plea came months after his partner, 26-year-old Raven Barner, entered her own guilty plea to two counts of battery on a person under the age of 14. Ridley and Barner admitted responsibility for boarding a school bus outside their Greenwood, Indiana, apartment on Oct. 31, 2025, and telling Ridley's young son to fight another child.
Ridley and Barner then joined the fight and began beating up a child they believed was bullying Ridley's son.
According to an affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime, camera footage taken inside the bus caught the entire incident. Police said the video showed Ridley and Barner getting on the bus after Ridley's son was picked up. The affidavit noted that the bus driver did not give them permission to board the bus.
Barner, the boy's stepmother, initiated a verbal altercation with two children and told one of them that she would "beat his a—." She then told the same boy that she would get her stepson to "beat his a—." Barner could apparently be seen in the video "encouraging" her stepson to "start an altercation."
When the bus driver got up and put herself between Barner and one of the children, Barner struck two of the kids, one of them "inadvertently."
According to the affidavit, Ridley was seen on video telling his son to engage with the boy Barner hit. Police said Ridley's son complied and hit the other boy. Ridley then threw the boy to the ground, allowing his son to "begin striking him repeatedly." After his son's attack, Ridley shoved another child back into one of the bus seats "hard enough to hit the side of the bus."
Barner was sentenced May 21 to one year in jail followed by one year of probation. She was also ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation.
Ridley's two-year prison term will be followed by two years' probation. He was ordered to complete an anger management course, a mental health evaluation and a substance abuse evaluation and treatment.