A Greenwood-area woman is headed to prison after a caught-on-camera confrontation aboard a school bus that prosecutors say turned into a child battery case.
On Tuesday, June 2, 2026, a Johnson County judge sentenced Raven Barner to one year in the Indiana Department of Correction, followed by one year of active probation, after she pleaded guilty to battering children on a school bus last fall, prosecutors said. The case centers on school-bus security video that, according to investigators, shows Barner striking students and urging another child to fight.
According to WISH-TV, Barner pleaded guilty on May 21 to two counts of battery on a person less than 14 and to resisting law enforcement. The Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office told WISH-TV the judge also ordered Barner to complete a mental-health evaluation as part of her sentence. In a written statement, Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner said the outcome "sends an unmistakable signal that battering children and resisting police will not be tolerated."
Video shows the attack
Detectives reviewed school-bus camera footage that, prosecutors say, shows Barner leaning over seats toward students, striking at least two children and telling a boy she would "beat his a—" while urging her stepson to join in, according to Law&Crime. The probable-cause affidavit states the bus driver stepped between the adults and the children, and other students tried to intervene.
Officers later located a vehicle leaving the area and stopped it, arresting Barner and a co-defendant, Donquarious Ridley, after they were identified as the adults who had boarded the bus, prosecutors said.
Charges and court timeline
Both adults were charged after investigators finished reviewing the footage and statements, according to local reporting. Barner faced two counts of battery on a person less than 14, while Ridley faced similar battery counts as well as a charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, records show.
The initial arrests and filing of charges were reported in late November 2025, and the case then moved through Johnson County courts before Barner’s May plea and the June 2 sentencing. WKRC previously published details from the probable-cause affidavit when the charges were first filed.
What the law says
Under Indiana law, battery against a person under 14 is frequently prosecuted as a felony, and state statute and case law treat such allegations as serious offenses that can carry prison time, depending on the facts. Courts in Indiana have also grappled with how far any "parental privilege" defense can stretch when adults claim they were disciplining a child, but recent rulings indicate prosecutions move forward where video and witnesses describe conduct that appears to be assault rather than discipline.
For more background on how the statute has been applied, see a state appellate ruling discussed at Justia.
District response and next steps
Police say Greenwood Community Schools' transportation office turned over the school-bus video and cooperated with the investigation, assistance that helped lead to the arrests. Prosecutors have said they hope the sentence discourages parents and other adults from confronting students on buses, and that the court-ordered mental-health evaluation will help address any underlying issues in Barner’s case.
Victim-privacy protections remain in place, and officials have not released identifying information about the children involved.
