“When I start from the very beginning and get to the very end, they’re like, ‘wow, that is a really crazy story,’” The victim’s mother Tammy Nobles told Project Baltimore. “And I say, ‘it is a crazy story. But it’s a true story.’ It’s the worst pain that a parent can ever get.”

Nobles’ daughter Kayla Hamilton was killed on July 27, 2022. For more than two years her death made headlines.

“She was just found with a cord wrapped around her neck and her mouth. Then just left her on the floor, like trash,” Nobles explained.

On the day Kayla died, Aberdeen Police quickly identified Walter Martinez — 16-year-old MS-13 gang member from El Salvador who was in United States illegally — as a primary suspect, according to charging documents, which showed Martinez was detained by police and questioned. Detectives had surveillance video and an audio recording that placed Martinez at the scene of the crime. Martinez was read his Miranda Rights.

“They knew he was guilty. They just needed that DNA to really lock it in,” stated Nobles.

When police sent out Martinez’s DNA, it took six months to process. And after Kayla was murdered, and while police were waiting for the DNA results, Martinez was allowed to enroll as a student and was attending Edgewood High School in Harford County.

“It makes me angry,” Nobles told FOX45. “You’re sitting there putting this monster into high school with other people’s children, and you’re putting children at risk. Look what he did to Kayla.”

According to information Fox45 News gathered from local and federal agencies involved in the investigation, this is the timeline of events surrounding Kayla’s murder.

• In March 2022, Martinez entered the United States illegally through Texas as an unaccompanied minor. He was apprehended by Border Patrol and sent to live with a sponsor in Maryland.
• By July 2022, Martinez moved to a mobile home in Aberdeen where he later killed Kayla.
• By the fall of 2022, as police waited for the DNA results, Martinez had been placed in foster care with Child and Protective Services. He then enrolled at Edgewood High School.
• In January 2023, the DNA results came back, and Martinez was arrested.
• In August 2024, he pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 70 years in jail.

“Why did you put him in a public school? I want to know why,” said Nobles. “Somebody needs to be held accountable.”

Under Maryland law, even though Martinez was a suspect, since he had not yet been charged with murder, he could attend Edgewood High School, and authorities, including CPS, were not required to tell the school about his past. But Nobles believes someone should have.

Harford County Public Schools told Fox45 in a statement when Martinez was enrolled in October 2022, “There was no information in our possession that would suggest he was a danger to other students and staff. HCPS is not afforded unfettered access to information held by law enforcement which may suggest that a potential student is dangerous, gang-affiliated, or suspected of heinous and disturbing crimes.”

“We need to change the laws,” said Nobles. “If you’re a suspect, the main suspect of a felony, you should not be able to attend school with other children. They have virtual school and computers.”

Several organizations were involved in the investigation into Martinez, including  the Aberdeen Police Department, Maryland State Police, the FBI, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Child and Protective Services.

Yet, when Martinez was enrolled in Edgewood High School, no one involved told the school that a teen suspected of murder was walking the hallways with 1,400 other students.

“Imagining what [Kayla] went through that day, how she felt — her last moments knowing that she was dying, and she wasn’t going to see me again — how scared she must have been,” said Nobles, who lives in Virginia with Kayla’s younger brother and sister. “I want to make sure that it doesn’t happen to someone else. People need to know what actually happened and what is going on. Her death is not going to be in vain.”

“I want to thank FOX45 for asking the question because it caught me off guard,” Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Carey Wright told FOX45 News Wednesday.

That “question” Wright referenced, which concerned transparency, was asked by FOX45 at the August state school boarding meeting.

MSDE had just released the most recent state test results known as MCAP — the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program. When FOX45 News began analyzing the data, something didn’t seem right.

“We can’t see how any kid in that entire school performed on the MCAP,” said FOX45 News’ Chris Papst to Wright at the board meeting.

Within the results released by MSDE, the public can see in math 24.1 percent of Maryland students tested, scored proficient. In English, 48.4 percent scored proficient.

Digging deeper into the data, FOX45 News found 185 schools statewide had 5 percent or fewer students score proficient in math. Nearly 60 of those schools are in Baltimore City. But that is all the public can see. The proficiency levels for many schools have been suppressed — replaced with asterisks. In those 185 schools, taxpayers don’t know the number of students who scored proficient.

But taxpayers soon will, after FOX 45 brought this issue to Wright’s attention.

“Rather than, having just, an asterisk you get a percentage of the percentage of students that are at that actual level,” explained Wright.

Here’s the back story.

In January 2023, FOX45 analyzed that year’s state test results and found 23 Baltimore City schools where zero students, among those tested, scored proficient in math. After that story aired, the state changed the way it reports test scores to the public. Instead of reporting the scores for the lowest performing schools, MSDE chose to suppress the scores by replacing the results with asterisks. It was a move that kept parents and taxpayers from seeing how poorly many schools were performing.

That decision by MSDE sparked criticism from the community. But when FOX45 tried to question then State Superintendent of Schools Mohammed Choudhury about it, he locked himself behind a door.

When Wright became the new State Superintendent, following Choudhury’s resignation, FOX45 asked if she would reverse the previous administration’s decision and once again make the results available to the public. At the time, Wright said she would look into it.

“I think that’s just important for the public to know,” Wright said in March.

At last week’s board meeting, Wright announced her department would reverse course and unredact the results. But when FOX45 analyzed the 2024 data MSDE, we noticed the results for many schools were still suppressed and hidden behind asterisks. Project Baltimore questioned Wright about it at the board meeting.

A few days later, MSDE told Fox45 in an email that the department “inadvertently continued the previous practice of applying an additional suppression rule.” And a new report with unredacted results would be released later this month – so taxpayers can see how all the schools performed.

“Finding this extra suppression rule that was not needed, that surprised me as well,” Wright told FOX45. “Taxpayers deserve to know, parents deserve to know, exactly what’s occurring in their schools and in their communities. And so, for me, it’s not a finger pointing exercise. It’s not an outing exercise. The data speak for themselves.”

Once the results have been updated and uploaded to the state website, Fox45 News will analyze the information and report the results.

“There’s two huge problems here,” said Sean Kennedy of the Maryland Public Policy Institute. “We are seeing kids get fewer services they need and more services they don’t from more bureaucrats while there’s fewer kids.”

Since 2022, City Schools enrollment is down nearly 2,000 students. In that same time, the number of teachers employed by City Schools has remained roughly the same — around 5,100.

According to Maryland State Department of Education data, since 2022, the number of administration-related positions in City Schools has increased 18%. Two years ago, there were 755 district administrators; now, there are 891.

“That means inherently it’s not going to the classrooms,” explained Kennedy. “More bureaucrats, more administrators, more non-instructional staff is not what Baltimore City Schools needs.”

The positions are mostly six-figure jobs. The number of director-level employees since 2022 increased from 95 to 126, with an average salary of $130,359. The number of Coordinator positions more than doubled, from 27 to 58, with an average salary of $121,131.

Other local school systems did not see this type of increase in administration-related jobs. Anne Arundel and Carroll Counties have fewer administrators since 2022. Howard County is up 1%, Harford County grew 5% and Baltimore County saw a 7% increase in the last two years.

“If you do the math and you add in the benefit to health care in the retirement costs, that means each one of these jobs cost the taxpayers $200,000 each,” said Kennedy.

According to the 2024 Public School Finance report by the U.S. Census, of the 100 largest school systems in America, Baltimore has the fifth-highest per-pupil administration costs — just behind school systems in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco and Denver.

City Schools declined an interview to explain why it’s hiring more administrators. In a statement, the district said that while it has “increased the number of administrators,” many administrator-related positions spend much of their time directly supporting schools and students daily.

A closer look at state employment data shows that while the number of administrators in City Schools is up, other positions that deal directly with students are down. The number of therapists and counselors in City Schools has fallen nearly 8% over the last two years. In a city like Baltimore, therapists and counselors are the types of services, according to Kennedy, that students need.

“They’re padding the payrolls at North Avenue while the kids are fleeing out of the city or out of the public schools,” said Kennedy. “There’s a math problem here, and it’s not just in the classrooms.”

The program was deemed a success by some, but it lasted just one summer.

For eight years, Boyd Rutherford served as Maryland’s lieutenant governor. In that time, he felt he accomplished a lot. But one thing he couldn’t get done still troubles him.

“It’s still frustrating,” Rutherford told FOX45 News.

Rutherford says about five years ago, he personally called Baltimore City Schools CEO Sonja Santelises to tell her about a trade school program offered by the Home Builders Institute. The program is called PACT, or Pre-Apprenticeship Certificate Training. According to HBI, PACT operates around the country serving 35,000 students and instructors nationwide.

“We have a shortage and had a shortage of skilled labor and it’s been going on for a long period of time,” explained Rutherford.

PACT, according to HBI’s website, is an award-winning curriculum that “guarantees every student masters the knowledge needed to be employed in an entry-level job in the building industry.” It offers students instructor training and certification in trades, such as carpentry, electrical and plumbing. With Rutherford’s support, HBI offered the program in Baltimore City. All the school system had to do was provide the space.

In the summer of 2020, the district piloted the program at Carver Vocational-Technical High School. The Home Builders Institute offered the program to veterans and former inmates.

But the curriculum was mostly geared toward youth who were under the supervision of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services. For those students, the program was free.

“You’re killing two birds with one stone. You’re giving kids a direction who are in the regular programs. But the kids who have gotten themselves in trouble and may be looking for a future, an opportunity in the evening to develop these skills.”

In the summer of 2020, Rutherford visited the program at Carver. He said it was a success.

“That program went really well,” said Rutherford.

But it only lasted that one summer.

“I think it was just a missed opportunity, and I blame it on the bureaucracy,” Rutherford told FOX45 News.

So, what happened?

That depends on who you ask. The Homebuilders Institute told FOX45 News the program was discontinued because the state declined to provide funding. But officials at the Department of Juvenile Services said the program was never intended to receive state funding and it never went through the state-mandated procurement process to receive money.

Then, there’s city schools, which told FOX45 News, “Carver did serve as a site for the Department of Juvenile Services (DJS) to run a summer HBI program for one year in 2020. Following that year, DJS relocated to another site (Living Classrooms) for future summers.”

That’s three entities with three different stories.

FOX45 News reached back out to HBI to ask if the program had been relocated, and in a statement, the organization wrote back, “Our team is not aware of the program being moved and if it did, it was not in connection with HBI or PACT.”

“It was like knocking your head up against a wall at a certain point that they just really had roadblock after roadblock to the point of just disinterest,” explained Rutherford.

Just months after PACT appears to have been discontinued, the Maryland General Assembly passed the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, which overhauls public education while increasing school funding statewide by billions of dollars. The Blueprint specifically calls for an increased focus on career and technology training, but Baltimore had a program that was initially offered for free to help some of the state’s most vulnerable children, and the program lasted one summer.

“It was very disappointing that it was something I thought you could just try, you know, give it a shot. If it doesn’t work, then you move on,” Rutherford told FOX45 News. “But, you know, your existing programs are not necessarily providing the skill set that these kids need.”

Why exactly this program was discontinued is still somewhat of a mystery. The Homebuilders Institute, Baltimore City Schools and DJS all say something different.

Kwame’ Kenyatta-Bey and Ashley Esposito have been on the school board for about a year and a half. FOX45 spoke with the two commissioners about their historic roles and the biggest challenges they’ve faced so far. One of the most important issues was whether city schools should make a change in leadership.

Sonja Santelises is beginning her ninth school year as CEO of the Baltimore City Public School System. She oversees the education of more than 75,000 students and manages a $1.7 billion budget. During her tenure, some metrics improved, but many key academic measures have dropped.

In 2016, when Santelises began as CEO, city schools had the lowest graduation rate in the state at 70.65%. Now, the most recent state data shows city schools still at the bottom with a graduation rate of 70.57%.

In June, the school board voted to give Santelises a one-year contract extension. Kenyatta-Bey and Esposito voted for the contract, which ends in June 2025.

FOX45 asked the two elected board members if they want to see Santelises stay beyond her current contract.

“It is not about a personality, it’s about what’s best for our students, what’s best for our children,” Kenyatta-Bey replied. “That decision as to whether we move forward or not … is going to be totally a business decision that’s based on what’s improving. Where do we need to be to improve, and where are we going to go next?”

In response to the same question, Esposito said the decision will be made by the school board as a whole.

“Because this is like a body decision … I don’t really feel one way or the other,” she said.

Esposito went on to explain, “My opinion and how I’m kind of like moving through the space is like evolving and like changing. So, I’m really relying on all of us having a conversation. We definitely have some new commissioners. So, yeah, all of us come from different backgrounds and the process is complicated.”

If the school board decides not to offer Santelises another contract in June 2025, the board would need to conduct a national search for her replacement, which takes time.

“Well, I think it depends, because I’ve seen jurisdictions that do that search in two months. I’ve seen that it really depends on the consultant that you have. It depends on how much community engagement you have,” Esposito said. So, what do we have, 200 and some neighborhoods in this city? So, making sure that all of those diverse communities have a stake and are able to give input into, okay, here’s how my needs are getting met, here’s how my needs aren’t getting met. And really like help us like through this process.”

The CEO’s contract negotiation is just one of many major decisions the two elected school board members made in their first term. In the hour-long interview, we asked them if city schools students are receiving the education they deserve and if taxpayers can afford to keep funding a school system that is now spending nearly $23,000 per student, per year.

The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future passed in 2021. The law pumps $30 billion additional tax dollars into public education statewide over the first 10 years. And then $4 billion additional dollars every year after that. The increased funding comes from a mix of state and local dollars. The goal is to provide a world-class education system. The plan, in part, increases teacher salaries, expands pre-K, and bolsters career and technology training.

But 3 1/2 years later, many leaders around Maryland have concerns over how the Blueprint will be implemented and funded.

To get a better understanding of those concerns, FOX45 sent an email to all 24 public school systems in the state and the leaders of all 24 Maryland jurisdictions — the 23 counties and Baltimore City — asking:

• Does your jurisdiction have concerns over how the Blueprint will be funded?
• Do you believe the Blueprint can be fully implemented in its current form, or do you believe the law needs to be adjusted?
• Has the Blueprint increased the quality of public education offered to students?

Of the 48 emails sent, 15 jurisdictions or schools responded. The responses can be broken down into three categories. The jurisdictions that support the Blueprint as is, those that don’t, and those that support it, but feel it may need some adjustments.

The jurisdictions that support the Blueprint in its current form are Anne Arundel and its school system, Howard County and its school system, the Montgomery County Board of Education and Prince George’s County. Anne Arundel County officials wrote they have “repeatedly expressed support for the Blueprint and its pillars.” Montgomery County Schools added it “believes in the aspirations expressed by the Maryland Blueprint.”

On the other side, seven jurisdictions responded saying the Blueprint needs to change. The main reason is largely that it’s too expensive.

Officials in Allegany County wrote, “We are unsure of how the budget increase will be managed at this point.” Dorchester County said officials are “not seeing any level of improvement [in public schools] for the investment we have made so far.” Wicomico County called the Blueprint too much of a one-size-fits-all approach.

Frederick and Baltimore counties said they support the Blueprint but feel some modifications may need to be made. Frederick County officials believe changes will have to be made along the way because of the complexity of the law. Baltimore County supports the Blueprint but is open to discussions to increase, “flexibility and expanded state aid to help empower local jurisdictions.”

Among the responses received, there’s a clear distinction between urban and rural parts of the state. The more populated areas seem to support the Blueprint while the less populated counties say it will not work for them.

School systems around the country found glaring errors in Darien’s background when he applied for teaching positions. Yet, BCPS gave him a job making a six-figure salary.

According to police, earlier this year, Darien used artificial intelligence to create a fake recording of Pikesville’s former principal Eric Eiswert making racist and antisemitic comments. Darien faces charges including theft and stalking. He’s been released on bail while he awaits trial.

FOX45 News, in May, obtained the resume Darien submitted to BCPS where it appears he misrepresented many of his credentials, including education and work history.

Now, a Maryland State Department of Education report appears to show Darien faked his own college transcripts to try to get teaching jobs around the county, including Baltimore County.

Through a public records request with MSDE, FOX45 News received documents showing Darien applied for a Maryland teaching license in February of 2024. In June, a few months later, MSDE recommended a “permanent denial” of that license.

According to the 140-page report, MSDE found examples of “false” or “fraudulent” material submitted by Darien. This includes Darien’s transcript from Langston University where he claimed to have received a bachelor’s degree.

The transcripts show Darien earned a Grade Point Average of about 3.9, nearly perfect. He received an A in classes like classroom management, educational technology and methods of teaching secondary math. All classes that seem important. The problem is, according to the MSDE report, the transcripts are “fraudulent”.

When Darien applied for his Maryland teaching certificate, MSDE learned that in 2015 he had also applied for a teaching certificate in Florida. At the time, the Florida Department of Education determined his Langston University transcripts were not real. And Langston University in May confirmed to Project Baltimore that Darien had not received a degree from the school.

But the red flags in Darien’s application for a Maryland teaching certificate didn’t stop there.

According to the MSDE documents obtained by Project Baltimore, Darien “indicated” he also earned a master’s degree from Langston University and a doctorate from St. Edwards University, in Texas.

The transcripts show he earned that doctorate in 2023, graduating with a very impressive 3.8 grade point average. But again, the transcripts appear to be fake.

In the MSDE report, it states the, “document is not a transcript produced by St. Edwards University. It is a fraudulent document.”

If all this is true, if Darien faked his own college transcripts when applying for jobs, how did he get hired in Baltimore County, first as a teacher at Randallstown High School and then as an athletic director at Pikesville, making more than $100,000? In 2015, nine years ago, Florida first flagged his transcripts.

At a press conference in May, FOX45 News asked Superintendent Myriam Rogers, “Can you explain to taxpayers how Mr. Darien was hired for this position and does BCPS check resumes for accuracy?”

“Part of our hiring process includes some very specific steps,” replied Rogers, who added that the school system followed the standard process before hiring Darien. The process includes checking references and credentials in addition to a criminal background check and fingerprinting.

But Dr. Rogers never specifically answered the question. So, FOX45 News sent a follow-up email asking:

“Why Mr. Darien was hired before he had even applied for a Maryland teaching certificate?”

“What measures were taken (by BCPS) to confirm the authenticity of Mr. Darien’s transcripts?

And, “Has BCPS made any substantial changes to its hiring processes?”

The school system responded stating it has, “no further comment on this matter. Thank you and stay safe in this heat.”

Choudhury resigned as state superintendent in October following a series of FOX45 News investigations that raised serious questions over transparency and potential violations of state law.

Last month during a school board meeting, the Fort Worth, Texas, Board of Education unanimously voted to confirm Choudhury as the next deputy superintendent of Leading and Learning for the Fort Worth Independent School District.

“Even though he is not here today,” Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Angelica Ramsey said at the board meeting. “I would like to welcome Mohammed Choudhury as deputy superintendent for Fort Worth ISD.”

This vote took place June 25, nearly three years to the day after Choudhury came to Maryland to lead the Maryland State Department of Education.

When Choudhury was hired as Maryland State Superintendent of Schools on July 1, 2021, he came from Texas where he was an associate superintendent in San Antonio. But Choudhury’s time in Maryland was short lived and highly controversial, as a FOX45 investigation uncovered a pattern of secrecy and mismanagement at MSDE.

FOX45’s investigation into Choudhury started in January 2023, when MSDE removed and then redacted state test scores from its website without telling the public. Then, through a series of public records requests, FOX45 News discovered that Choudhury was using a secondary email account to conduct business, and that his state-issued cell phone was set to auto delete text messages after 30 days. Twelve messages were deleted after FOX45 filed a public records request to obtain them.

As the investigation continued, FOX45 News obtained screenshots showing Choudhury had used an encrypted messaging app, Signal, to communicate with employees at MSDE. Signal allows users to enable a setting to automatically delete messages. But when asked about using Signal, Choudhury initially denied it.

“Mr. Superintendent, have you ever used the Signal Application in commission of your job?” FOX45 News’ Chris Papst asked Choudhury during an August 2023 state board meeting.

“I have no comment. For my job, no,” replied Choudhury.

Choudhury later issued a statement clarifying that he used the encrypted messaging app with “family and friends.”

Days later, he announced he would resign as superintendent on Oct. 6, 2023, and transition to a new role as senior adviser to the state school board. Choudhury kept his salary of $310,000.

Choudhury officially left MSDE on May 2. In the roughly seven months he held the job as a senior adviser, he was paid around $180,000.

Prior to being hired in Fort Worth, Choudhury had applied for and was considered for positions around the country. He was publicly announced as a finalist for School Superintendent jobs in Madison, Wisconsin and Atlanta, Georgia. He also applied for the superintendent of Albuquerque Public Schools in New Mexico. Choudhury was not selected for those jobs. And now, he’s going back to Texas.

“We are very excited to get him back to the great state of Texas and working with him so we can continue to build and grow our school district,” Ramsey said during the June board meeting. “So, congratulations and welcome, sir.”

One year ago, FOX45 News first began telling the stories of the families who demanded the school system restore bus service, and their concerns were heard.

“Is it satisfying to know that the school does appear to be listening to you?” Howard County parent Amber Sam Chee was asked.

“For sure,” she replied.

“I’m just happy that we got heard,” added her husband, Mark Sam Chee.

Back in June 2023, FOX45 News spoke with several Howard County families, who said their primary concern was safety.

In an effort to ensure the “efficient use of transportation,” the Howard County Board of Education had voted to cut bus service for about 3,500 students by expanding the distance students must live from school in order to qualify for a bus. The distance for pre-K students went from .5 miles to 1 mile. The distance for sixth through 12th-grade students also expanded by half a mile.

The district said the cuts in bus service were needed after school start times were changed. But that meant some five-year-olds were expected to walk a mile to school.

“We timed it. It’s 30 minutes each way,” Lindi Mueller, a Howard County parent, told FOX45 News in 2023.

Much of the route had no sidewalks, with steep hills and sharp turns, where oncoming traffic was hard to see.

Many communities in Howard County were outraged. They spoke at board meetings, organized online petitions and even marched in parades demanding bus service be restored. After their stories were told, some families, like the Sam Chees, did get their buses back. But most of the 3,500 students did not.

Now it appears many of the buses are coming back. Last month, during its June meeting, the Howard County Board of Education voted to restore bus service.

“I want students to be walking less,” said student Board Member Lamia Ayaz during the meeting.

“When we changed the distances, it really impacted families who cannot afford transportation and don’t have a car,” said Board Member Linfeng Chen.

In a unanimous decision, the board decreased the distance students must live from school to qualify for bus service. The distance for elementary school students went from one mile to .75 miles. Middle schoolers went from 1.5 miles to one mile. And the distance for high school students also dropped half a mile to 1.5 miles. And these distances will be measured property line to property line.

The board celebrated its decision.

“We know this reflects what this board wants and what this community wants,” Board Chair Jennifer Swickard Mallo said during the meeting.

The revised distances will take effect in the fall of 2025. So, for this coming school year, the students who lost their bus still will not have one. But they should next year.

“It’s nice that they’ve taken the time to really see the impacts and understand the community concerns and make some changes,” Amber Sam Chee said.

Howard County Schools estimates 11 extra buses will be needed to accommodate the additional students who will no longer be considered walkers. The district plans to contract for those buses in the coming months. By the summer of next year, the new bus routes should be finalized.

“I hope it all turns out well,” said Mark Sam Chee. “The convenience of the original bus route coming back, I think would benefit all of us.”

Baltimore School for the Arts, according to the state, is the highest-rated school in Baltimore City for academic achievement. It ranks in the top 6% of all high schools in Maryland.

But for Nicole Edge and her son, Hassan Hunt, the school’s reputation does not match reality.

“Hassan works very hard, has always been a hard worker in school,” Edge told FOX45 News. “He’s always gotten very good grades and has always taken his work seriously, has always been a child that has some integrity. So, it was upsetting.”

Hassan just finished his junior year at Baltimore School for the Arts. Soon, he’ll start applying to colleges, where he plans to pursue a career in the arts or perhaps as a teacher. But earlier this school year, those plans were placed in jeopardy when he was accused by the school of using artificial intelligence to write a paper. In other words, he was accused of cheating.

“Like, cheated? I’m trying to think like, okay, what do we mean by cheated?” said Hassan, explaining what he thought when he learned that he’d been accused of cheating.

In November, Hassan handed in an assignment in his Modern World History class. At first, he got a B- on the assignment. But a short time later, he received a notification that his grade was changed to a zero because, according to his teacher, Hassan did not write his own paper.

In an email obtained by FOX45 News, the teacher explained that Hassan plagiarized the last paragraph of his assignment. The email says, “Plagiarism is defined as using another person’s work/words as your own without proper citation.” The teacher’s email went on to say, “In this case, the other person is AI.”

The teacher used AI detection software called GPTZero, which claimed with 98% probability that the paragraph was not written by Hassan, but rather AI.

Project Baltimore asked Hassan if he used artificial intelligence on the assignment.

“I used Grammarly,” he replied. “I don’t know a student that I’ve talked to, that honestly, doesn’t use Grammarly.”

Grammarly is marketed specifically to students. Its website reads, “Grammarly is your AI writing partner that makes it easy to raise your grades and meet your goals.”

Hassan said he didn’t use Grammarly to generate text, just to proofread his paper for spelling and grammar mistakes.

“There’s never been a rule,” said Hassan. “It was a very blurry line, because you have some teachers saying one thing, other teachers are saying nothing. So, it was very confusing.”

Baltimore City Schools does not have a board-approved policy concerning the use of artificial intelligence by students. The district said in a statement, “Baltimore City Public Schools recognizes the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) as a transformative educational tool that can enhance learning experiences and prepare our students for a future dominated by digital innovation. However, we are equally aware of the challenges it presents, particularly concerning academic integrity.”

The statement went on to explain that city schools will continue to update their grading policies concerning “plagiarism, academic dishonesty, and cheating” as AI technology advances.

“I don’t think that you should be holding students accountable for something that you don’t even have a policy on,” said Edge. “The kids need to be protected.”

Despite the zero he received on the assignment, Hassan finished the year with a B in Modern World History. His online record still reflects that he cheated. His family says Baltimore School for the Arts never gave Hassan an opportunity to defend himself in person, which is something the family says they requested.

“No conversation with the teacher, no conversation with any of the staff whatsoever,” Edge told Project Baltimore. “The teacher did not come and speak to him directly. It was just a blanket zero. It was the label of the cheating.”

Edge went on to say, “They dropped the ball on so many levels. And that’s disappointing for a school that has such a reputation, and is supposed to have a certain culture, in the school. So, very disappointed.”

The AI detection software that Hassan’s teacher used is GPTZero. Project Baltimore recently spoke with a parent in Anne Arundel County who said the same software was used to accuse her daughter of cheating. The GPTZero website clearly states, “results should not be used to directly punish students.”