Fact check: Claim about Marjorie Taylor Greene and arming teachers is satire

Molly Stellino, USA TODAY
·4 min read

The claim: Marjorie Taylor Greene ordered Georgia teachers to carry guns

Increasing school security has become a priority for policymakers ever since law enforcement failed to act quickly when a gunman went on a shooting rampage inside an elementary school in Uvlade, Texas, earlier this year.

Policy proposals have ranged from mandating clear backpacks for students to requiring schools to have only one entrance.

Recently, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., made another suggestion: arming school children with assault weapons.

"The kids at Uvalde needed JR-15s to defend themselves from the evil maniac that didn’t care about laws," she tweeted, referring to the small semi-automatic weapon that is similar to an AR-15.

An Aug. 5 Facebook post plays off Greene's recent tweet and other statements she has made defending gun rights, including those directed at shooting survivors. The post claims Greene ordered a school district in Georgia to require all teachers to carry guns. It was shared more than 6,000 times and shows a teacher in front of a chalkboard holding a large gun.

The caption reads, “SCHOOL BOARD MEETING RESULTS: After today's school board meeting, Rome City Schools will go full throttle and have armed educators At the Order of Marjorie Taylor Greene. Every teacher will be required to have a firearm in their possession.”

Although many commenters took this claim seriously, it comes from a satirical Facebook page, and there is no truth to it. Rome City Schools has not made any policies related to arming teachers, according to the school district’s interim superintendent.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post.

Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks

The post is satirical

City of Rome, GA & Floyd County, the Facebook page that shared the post, describes itself as "completely satirical" in the about section of its page.

“Not affiliated with any government agency. This page is completely satirical,” it reads.

The Facebook page often shares satirical posts about Greene, and USA TODAY recently debunked another post by City of Rome, GA & Floyd County that claimed the Republican lawmaker tweeted a message about Jesus and the American Revolution on July 4.

Nevertheless, several users believed the post was real.

"Who is providing those poorly paid, under appreciated (sic) teachers their weapons? This is a recipe for disaster, period," one comment reads.

"What a stupid decision! Greene shouldn’t have the authority to ORDER anything but a cheeseburger!" another comment reads.

But there is no evidence that Greene ever issued an order to schools, and as a congresswoman, she does not have the authority to make any such decree.

In addition, Rome City Schools does not allow teachers to carry firearms at its schools.

Georgia enacted a law in 2014 allowing school districts to set gun-carrying policies for teachers and other staff, according to Justin Pauly, the director of communications at the Georgia School Boards Association. Georgia is one of 20 states with laws of that nature.

Fact check: Mississippi school districts can allow, prohibit teachers from carrying guns on campus

But Rome City Schools has not established policies that would let teachers or other staff carry firearms in schools, Interim Superintendent Dawn Williams told USA TODAY in an emailed statement.

“Our school board did not create a policy for arming staff based on the new law,” Williams said.

Our rating: Satire

Based on our research, we rate SATIRE the claim that Greene ordered Georgia teachers to carry guns. The claim comes from a Facebook page that describes itself as satirical, and the superintendent of the school district in the post said the information is false.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Post on Marjorie Taylor Greene, arming teachers is satire

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest Stories

  • Plastic treaty talks in Ottawa get underway with pleas for high ambition, flexibility

    OTTAWA — The Ecuadorean diplomat tasked with shepherding the fourth round of talks for a global plastic treaty in Ottawa this week says the world cannot wait much longer for governments to get it right. Luis Vayas Valdivieso was tapped last fall to be the lead negotiator for the treaty negotiations which got underway in Ottawa this morning. It is the fourth of five planned rounds aimed at having an agreement by the end of this year to chart a course towards ending plastic waste by 2040. Valdivie

  • Google fires 20 more workers who protested $1.2bn Israel contract: ‘Ultimately we are a workplace’

    The protests took place inside Google’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California

  • How many asylum seekers the UK has taken in, explained

    Rishi Sunak has vowed to cut net migration and to put a stop to small boat crossings across the Channel - but how many people are actually entering the UK?

  • 'People think I work in a cafe at 18 but I own it'

    Chloe Frost says starting her own business aged 18 just "proves you can do it".

  • US can’t foot the bill to keep UK and Europe safe, says Sunak

    The US cannot foot the bill to keep the UK and Europe safe, Rishi Sunak said on Tuesday as he announced the Government would raise defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2030.

  • Shogun: A guide to the hit Japanese samurai epic as its finale cuts deep

    A quick guide as the razor-sharp, critically-acclaimed samurai epic reaches its finale.

  • UPDATE 1-California, 21 other states back EPA vehicle emissions rules

    A group of 22 states led by California and five cities are backing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new tailpipe emissions rules after 25 Republican-led states sued the agency last week claiming the new regulations were unworkable and unlawful. The lawsuit filed Thursday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia challenges the 2027-2032 model year EPA vehicle emissions rules that aim to cut fleetwide tailpipe emissions for cars and light trucks by nearly 50% over 2026 levels in 2032. California, New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania and other states sought to intervene by filing a motion in the lawsuit saying they could be harmed if the EPA did not require future reductions in harmful vehicle emissions.

  • Jeep maker Stellantis to lay off an unspecified number of factory workers in the coming months

    Jeep maker Stellantis is planning to lay off an unspecified number of workers at its U.S. factories in the coming months to deal with a rapidly changing global auto market, the company said Tuesday. The statement comes as the company faces increased capital spending to make the transition from gasoline vehicles to electric autos. It also has reported declining U.S. sales in the first quarter, and it has higher costs due to a new contract agreement reached last year with the United Auto Workers union.

  • Cincinnati Bengals make 2-year deal with backup quarterback Jake Browning

    The Cincinnati Bengals re-signed backup quarterback Jake Browning to a two-year contract, the team announced Tuesday.

  • SC man says his ‘lifestyle has stepped up’ after winning lottery game’s grand prize

    The odds of winning the six-figure jackpot were 1-in-960,000.

  • Sonos rebuilds its app from scratch to make it ‘easier, better and faster’

    CEO acknowledges old app ‘has been a pain point at times’

  • Exclusive-EU concerned about KKR, Telecom Italia deal impact on wholesale competition, sources say

    European Union antitrust regulators are asking rivals and customers whether proposed acquisition of Telecom Italia's (TIM) fixed-line access network by U.S. investment firm KKR could hamper Italy's wholesale market, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. Such regulatory worries could lead to a lengthy investigation of the deal and put pressure on KKR to offer significant remedies. KKR is buying TIM's domestic network for up to 22 billion euros ($23.5 billion) in a deal that would make the Italian telecoms group the first in a major European country to divest its landline grid.

  • A critical look at the rising costs of buying a new car

    According to data from Edmunds, the share of consumers who pay $1,000 monthly payments for new vehicles is above 17% for the fourth straight quarter. As inflation makes its way across almost every consumer category, it can be daunting to figure out just how much it actually costs to purchase a new vehicle. Edmunds Consumer Insights Analyst Joseph Yoon joins Wealth! to break down the best tips for American consumers looking to buy a new vehicle. Yoon puts the increased costs of buying a new car into perspective: "Think the first place they need to think about is the overall cost of the vehicle. Not only have the vehicles gotten way more expensive in the last five years almost to the tune of nearly $10,000, so has the interest rates. We talked about in the last segment about how interest rates for homes are over 7%. Same goes for new car loans as well which means that when you're taking out a loan for maybe $40,000 for a new car, that's almost $10,000 in interest alone. So when you take those things into consideration, it means that you have to pay so much more than you might have the last time around when you were going car shopping. So you have to be flexible." For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth! This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino

  • Success of psilocybin for depression linked to relationship with therapist

    New research suggests much of the credit for the success of psilocybin for treating depression lies in the relationship between the patient and his or her therapist.

  • New Fort Worth building rules allow developers to get high on Panther Island

    The city council voted unanimously Tuesday to loosen restrictions on building height.

  • Analysis-UK stocks may finally be back in fashion

    London's FTSE-100 hit a record high on Tuesday, raising hopes that Britain's stock market might finally be shaking off years of underperformance as investors look for bargains and UK growth picks up. Months after rival indexes across the world started chalking up records, Britain's benchmark stock index touched a new peak of 8,076.52, surpassing its previous high from February 2023. The new peak brings this year's gains for the FTSE 100 to 4% - still behind the 6% rise in the pan-European STOXX 600, as well as France's CAC 40 and Germany's DAX, which are up 7.5% and 7.8% respectively.

  • Famed HBCU coach, architect of the ‘Satellite Express’ that launched Jerry Rice, has died

    He coached Jerry Rice at Mississippi Valley State and lived in Fort Worth later in life.

  • Arsenal vs Chelsea LIVE! Premier League match stream, latest team news, lineups, TV, prediction today

    Victory will take the Gunners three points clear at the top

  • Fame, fortune and fraud: The rise and fall of ‘the biggest art scammer in history’ Inigo Philbrick

    As the lies piled up and the cash ran dry, the picture Philbrick had painted was exposed

  • Columbia University extends remote learning amid Gaza war protests

    The hybrid learning comes amid reports of antisemitic harassment around Columbia University.