INDIANAPOLIS — East 42nd Street and Mitthoefer Road on Indianapolis' east side.
That's the spot where Robert Hornbuckle and his wife, Jenisha Tate, say a school bus driver forced their daughters off the bus during a bad thunderstorm two weeks ago, even though an adult wasn't anywhere in sight to pick them up.
"Lord, please bring me my babies, please bring me my babies home safe," Hornbuckle said.
Hornbuckle remembers the prayer he and Jenisha said over and over on Aug. 14, when their daughters, 5-year-old Jemiah and 10-year-old Brooklynn, never showed up at their bus stop at 42nd Street and Biscayne Road after school.
Tate said she'd been waiting several hours, arriving at the bus stop around 4 p.m. that day to get her daughters off the bus and take them home to their apartment, about a mile away.
"This is both of their first times riding the bus," Tate explained, saying the girls had been getting to Indy STEAM Academy, a charter school where the girls attended kindergarten and fifth grade, by riding with their parents on a city bus for the first few weeks of school.
When that got too hard with work schedules, Tate said she talked to the school's transportation director and was told her daughters could start riding the bus, using the bus stop at 42nd Street and Biscayne Road.
So that's where Tate said she took the girls that Monday morning, but the bus never arrived, so she ended up taking them to school on a city bus.
Tate said the school's principal told her the bus had been running late that morning because of the rain, but the girls could take the bus home that same day.
The morning's issues were enough for Jenisha to call later that afternoon, she said, just to double-check with the principal that she had the right address for her daughters' bus stop.
"She informed me I had the right bus stop and the right bus number," Tate said.
When her daughters never made it to that bus stop later that day, Tate said she called the school again, even going across the street to use a phone from a storage business when her phone's battery died.
"The secretary answers and she tells me, 'The bus is going to your house,'" Tate recalled from the phone call.
By the time Tate got home, that's what she was expecting to see, her daughters there, getting off the bus.
"I'm expecting to see a big yellow bus in front of the apartment complex," she said. "That was going to be my sign of relief."
According to Tate, that's not what happened.
"I see no bus, so I go into straight panic mode," Tate explained, saying the girls were nowhere in sight, so she called Hornbuckle and her mom.
Hornbuckle said he also got a call from the school, telling him Tate wasn't at the bus stop.
"I told them, 'Mom has been there for hours, maybe the driver is at the wrong stop, but mom has been there for hours,'" Robert recalled, explaining he tried to go to DCS, thinking maybe the bus driver had dropped his daughters off there, but it was closed.
So, he called 911 and so did Tate.
It wasn't until just after 8 p.m. that night, the parents say Jemiah and Brooklynn showed up at home, soaking wet and crying after wandering around in the rain for hours.
"Jemiah is talking and telling us that the lady was mean and, 'She put us off the bus, and we told her, 'We don't stay here, daddy. We don't stay here. This is not our stop,''" Hornbuckle said his youngest told him.
"That's when Brooklynn calmed down and told us she had told the lady multiple times that, 'This isn't our apartment. We don't live here, and my mommy's not here,'" Hornbuckle said his older daughter recalled. "She told us that the lady told her, 'This is where I've been instructed to put you guys, for you guys to go.' Opened the door and put them off."
The girls told their parents they found their way home but couldn't get inside because no one was home.
That's because Hornbuckle and Tate were out searching for their daughters.
Ten-year-old Brooklynn told her parents she decided to take her little sister to the bus stop where they had been that morning, hoping their mom might be there.
"She thought she was doing the right thing," Hornbuckle said.
13News reached out to First Student for comment on the alleged incident.
They sent a statement, which reads:
"At First Student, we take our responsibility to care for students very seriously.
We thoroughly investigated the alleged incident, which included reviewing bus video.
It shows our driver followed proper protocol on August 14. After a guardian was not present at the bus stop, we were instructed to drop the students off at their home. Our driver waited and watched until they got inside safely."
Hornbuckle and Tate say that is not what happened.
"They can't get inside. There's no way to get inside," Hornbuckle said.
13News asked First Student, Inc. if we could see the bus video from that afternoon. A spokesperson told us that would be against company policy.
Hornbuckle said he followed up with First Student, Inc. and left a message, explaining why he was calling but never heard back from the company.
"No, 'Sorry about what happened. How are the girls?' Nothing!" Hornbuckle said.
He said he also followed up with Indy STEAM Academy and was told the school had the wrong address for the girls in its files.
"That address hasn't changed," Hornbuckle said, explaining that his oldest daughter had been at Indy STEAM Academy for the past three years and to enroll her there, they had to provide their address.
13News reached out to Indy STEAM Academy for their side of the story.
The principal and CEO, Dr. Yvonne Bullock, provided this statement:
"Indy STEAM Academy contracted with First Student Bus Company for the 2023-24 School Year.
The first day of school was August 1, 2023. The first day of school for this family was August 14, 2023.
The students did not ride the bus to school that morning. The mother indicated that the bus did not come on time, so she brought the students to school.
The mother called at 2:30 p.m. and requested that the students ride the bus home instead of being picked-up.
The bus company called the school indicating that the parents were NOT at the stop.
The school called the mom, but she did not get an answer. The school called the grandmother and the father both who indicated that they would try to contact the mom.
The bus company attempted twice to drop off the student at the assigned stop, but the parent was not there.
It is the policy of Indy STEAM Academy that if a parent is not at the stop to receive their children, the bus is to bring the students back to school.
In this case, the driver was trying to help by taking the student home. We apologize that this incident occurred and are working diligently with First Students to ensure that this does not happen again."
Since then, Hornbuckle and Tate have withdrawn their daughters from the school and put them in different ones, explaining they are now the only ones who will be taking and picking them up from now on.
"As of right now, I don't think I can trust anyone other than their mother with my children. Period," Hornbuckle said. "As sad as it is, in this day and age, my children can't go outside to play by themselves, especially in the area we live in, so for you to drop my daughters off in the unknown, God is amazing to bring my daughters back safe and unharmed, unscathed, untouched and in one piece."
An attorney for the family said he's put the school on notice, letting them know the parents could file a lawsuit, while also looking into legal action against First Student, Inc.