Viral photo shows schools receiving federal funding for academic programs, not for ‘school shooting list’

Following a September 4 shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, in which four people were killed, lists of schools circulated on social media, allegedly showing that those schools had been victims of violence.

“I don’t know how true this list of school shootings is, but I don’t take it lightly at all,” said a Facebook post on Sept. 8. “It’s making the rounds because so many schools are on the list… and it’s being sent to so many kids, it’s not something to play with.”

The post included photos and screenshots listing schools in Georgia.

A similar Facebook post on Sept. 12 included an image with a list of schools in New Mexico. The caption said it was a “list of schools that will be affected by a shooting” and said the list was sent to students via the social media platform Snapchat.

The post was flagged in its news feed as part of Meta’s efforts to combat fake news and misinformation. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

There are also allegations that campuses in Nebraska, Missouri and Alabama are being targeted using similar lists. Law enforcement agencies in those states confirmed that the lists were shared with students via Snapchat and TikTok.

However, officials who examined the lists said they did not find that they were created in connection with threats of violence at schools. Rather, the lists show the names of schools that receive federal funding to provide school-wide and targeted assistance programs for students.

The list in the Facebook post of Georgia schools is even titled “2024 Title I Schools Schoolwide (SWP) and Targeted Assisted (TA)” and can be found on the Georgia Department of Education website. The list of New Mexico campuses is available on the state Department of Education website.

Title I school-wide programs aim to improve a school’s entire educational program so that each student “can demonstrate adequate and advanced achievement according to state academic standards,” according to the Georgia Department of Education.

Title I targeted assistance programs are designed for students who are at risk of failure and need additional assistance.

Spokespeople for the Georgia Department of Education and the New Mexico Department of Education declined to comment on the lists used in the social media posts.

“Given the sensitivity of the situation,” Meghan Frick of the Georgia Department of Education referred us to law enforcement, including the Georgia Bureau of Investigations.

Nelly Miles, director of public and government affairs for the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, said she could not comment directly on the posts because the agency “has received a significant number of online threatening allegations in the past week following the Apalachee shooting.” But threats are analyzed and forwarded to local law enforcement for follow-up.

A sheriff in central Georgia addressed the lists directly and warned that anyone using them to create panic through a false threat would be arrested.

“I don’t know what the [academic programs] to the Georgia Department of Education, I can assure you that by creating the image with the goal of creating and inciting panic and then spreading it, you have been targeted,” Bleckley County Sheriff Daniel Cape said in a Facebook post. “I have given you plenty of warning, this will not be tolerated here.”

The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department in Albuquerque examined the list of New Mexico schools and concluded the threat was not credible, said Janelle Garcia, communications director for the state Department of Education.

We believe that the claim that photos showing lists of school names are “school shooting lists” is false.