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“Mountain Middle School, its technology policy, and media literacy efforts serve as a successful model for educators and parents trying to teach the next generation how to critically consume media.” – Aedan Hannon Herald Staff Writer

Mountain Middle School, located in Durango, CO is featured prominently in the “Trust Me” documentary. That’s because they are a unique success story when it comes to dealing with misinformation and teaching media literacy to children. Their policies involving cellphone bans and media literacy curriculum highlight the type of rationality that our society needs in order to combat things like fake news and the spreading of biased or inaccurate information. 

In the article, Shane Voss, the head of Mountain Middle School, states that “removing the phones from the school day really just elevated the level of engagement and academic excellence as the foundation of the culture of our school.” Voss continues to emphasize the need to focus educational curriculum on helping students “decipher what is fact and what is truth in a world full of misinformation.” 

In “Trust Me”, Mountain Middle School is the focus of one of several global stories revolving around media literacy, which we define as “the ability to identify different types of media and understand the messages they’re sending.” By removing cell phones and giving students the tools required to recognize media bias and misinformation within their curriculum, Mountain Middle School educators have managed to create a winning model for school cultures in our modern era. 

Click here to read the full write-up by the Durango Herald about our inclusion of Mountain Middle School in the “Trust Me” documentary. 

You can also see more of Mountain Middle School and its progressive policies towards technology and media literacy by streaming “Trust Me”, available now on Vimeo On Demand.