OCEN’s Covenant for Phone-Free Christian Schools

Regarding Student Cell Phone and Technology UsageAfter careful consideration and in keeping with our mission, our school covenants with other Christian schools and the larger Christian community to affirm the following:

- We are entrusted, as a Christian school, with the education and care of children who are dearly loved and created in God’s image.

- We must guard against anything in our school that would impede the nurturing of that image in each of our students or cause any of them to stumble in their growth as disciples.

- We believe the overwhelming evidence now available shows that students’ pervasive use of cell phones and screen technology, both within and outside of school, has brought devastating consequences. Both wisdom and research prove that phone and screen usage have radically affected our students’ minds, hearts, and spirits.

- We know half-measures attempting to address this situation in schools have proven ineffective. Partial limitation to phone or screen access during the school day has not been able to root out the problem of addictive and harmful behaviors among many students.

- We stand fast on the conviction that our minds are to be transformed by Christ rather than by electronic data points and images.

- We are called to lead in developing an effective response to the phone and screen risks that plague our students. The problem and its effects are so enculturated and pervasive that solving it requires a communal approach.