North Carolina teacher charged with soliciting 13-year-old boy for sex in Fairfax County

HERNDON, Va. - A North Carolina middle school teacher has been arrested and accused of soliciting a 13-year-old boy online for sex in Fairfax County, Virginia.

According to police, 24-year-old Kathleen Antonina Capitano came to a hotel in Herndon, Virginia, last Saturday at around 1 p.m. to meet with a 13-year-old boy to engage in sexual activity. However, authorities were waiting for her and took her into custody after they were alerted about her online activities and had met with the child's parents before Capitano arrived in Virginia.

Detectives from Fairfax County police's Major Crimes Division along with agents from the FBI's Child Exploitation Task Force were made aware of the school teacher after a joint investigation began on April 11. Investigators discovered Capitano met the boy while she was a student-teacher at Coates Elementary School in Herndon in 2015.

Fairfax County Public Schools spokesperson John Torre said Capitano was a teacher-intern during the 2014-15 school year.

Capitano has been charged with four felony counts of use of communications systems to facilitate certain offenses involving children under 15 years of age. Police said the case is still under investigation and additional charges are possible.

"Right now, our detectives don't have any additional reason to believe that there are additional victims," said Fairfax County police spokesperson Don Gotthardt. "That is not to say there aren't, so we are encouraging anyone who knows that their children might have had contact with Ms. Capitano during her time period in Fairfax County Public Schools system to call us."

Police said the boy's parents were "stunned" and unaware of the relationship between their child and the teacher.

"It was somebody from Ms. Capitano's past that became aware of the situation and immediately did the right thing and notified authorities," said Gotthardt. "That is when authorities began swift and decisive action between our detectives and the FBI to lead to her arrest."

Brunswick County Schools in North Carolina have placed Capitano on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. She was hired as a math teacher at a middle school for the school system last August.

Capitano is being held without bond at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.