Loudoun County child care worker accused of duct taping child’s legs

By Abigail Constantino
February 21, 2020 | 10:59 PM

A former child care worker is accused of assaulting a child inside a day care facility in Loudoun County, Virginia.

Cinthia J. Escobar Gomez, 25, of Sterling, was arrested Thursday on charges of assault and battery after the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said she restrained the legs of a child with duct tape last January.

The child was in her care at the Open Arms Child Development Center in Ashburn.

The child was not physically hurt during the incident, a sheriff’s office news release said.

Escobar Gomez is being held without bond at the Loudoun County Jail.

School bus emergency? Fairfax County students have a plan to handle it

By Heather Gustafson
August 21, 2026 | 10:05 PM

This story is part of WTOP’s 2026 Back to School coverage. The wheels on the bus will soon be going round and round again in Fairfax County, Virginia, and some of its young riders are learning what to do if there’s an emergency on the way to school. The annual Safety Patrol Training Camp, hosted by Fairfax County Public Schools' Office of Transportation Services, combined hands-on exercises with classroom lessons to teach students how to keep calm during emergencies on buses. The training can feel remarkably realistic, with overturned school buses on their side or completely upside down in the middle of the county bus depot. Other buses, right side up, fill with smoke that is water-based but mimics the intensity of a bus overheating.

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