Baltimore (WBFF) – State education leaders say they’re committed to improving lines of communication to help keep your kids safe at school.

That’s after a Project Baltimore investigation found MS-13 gang member and now-convicted felon Walter Martinez attended two public schools in Maryland and no one at the schools knew.

For more than a month, Fox45 News has been trying to speak with Maryland Department of Human Services Secretary Rafael Lopez. DHS oversees the state’s foster care system. The Baltimore Project would like to ask Lopez about the lack of communication that allowed Martinez to attend Lansdowne High School in Baltimore County and then Edgewood High School in Harford County in late 2022.

Project Baltimore went to DHS’s central office, left voicemails and wrote emails to its communications team. We even requested the secretary’s calendar of public events to try and talk to him. Nothing. Almost two weeks passed with no response. So Project Baltimore went to the Secretary’s house in Washington DC and knocked on the door.

Last month, Fox45 News said that after Martinez killed Kayla Hamilton in July 2022 in Harford County, the 16-year-old was placed in foster care by Child Protective Services, which is under DHS. Martinez remained in foster care while police awaited the results of a DNA test. Even though Aberdeen police said CPS Martinez was dangerous, he was placed in two foster homes and enrolled in the two public schools in Maryland.

READ ALSO | An MS-13 gang member attends the Maryland high school as a murder suspect, the school has not said

In August, Martinez was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 70 years in prison. Yet thousands of students in Baltimore and Harford counties were in the classroom with a dangerous gang member and murder suspect, but they didn’t know it. The school systems said they didn’t even know because DHS didn’t tell them.

With Secretary Lopez still not available to explain why the schools were not notified, Project Baltimore questioned Dr. Carey Wright and Maryland Board of Education President Dr. Joshua Michael.

“Do you have concerns about public safety in schools,” asked Chris Papst of Project Baltimore.

“I think safety is always a concern,” Dr. Wright replied. “As a director. As superintendent. The first thing is to make sure all your children are safe.”

The Baltimore Project asked Dr. Wright if he thought Baltimore and Harford County schools should have known about Martinez’s violent history when he was enrolled.

“You have supervisors asking to be given this type of information. You may have made a very different placement decision than a public high school. He could have gone to an alternative school or something,” Wright explained.

READ ALSO | ‘It’s dangerous’: Maryland school doesn’t know MS-13 student, foster carer not shocked

“What is your message to those parents who didn’t know who their children were sitting next to in class?” Papst asked Dr. Michael the President of the State School Board.

“We need to do better to make sure our educators, who are there to make sure our students in school are safe, have all the information they need to ensure a safe learning environment. We as a council and state department are committed to making sure we improve those lines of communication,” Michael told Project Baltimore.

Back at the Lopez house – nothing. No one answered the door when I knocked. The Baltimore Project left a business card asking Secretary Lopez to “please call.”

Later that day, a DHS spokesperson called and said Secretary Lopez would be available for an interview in the coming weeks.