When an employee of the Clinton Public School District in Mississippi was doxxed, leaving the employee’s private information vulnerable to public misuse, the district took action. But one of those actions — suspending all social media — left stakeholders frustrated.

“Losing social media in the middle of the school year had a significant impact on our communication efforts,” says Sandi Beason, public information officer for the district. Parents, teachers and administrators were left without the tool they’d all come to rely on for everything from day-to-day announcements to emergency notifications.

The district brought in communications consultant Caron Blanton, who led a survey and a series of focus groups to discover what qualities communication systems must have to meet people’s needs. The results: Stakeholders wanted a comprehensive communication tool that could serve multiple needs, and they wanted social media back. The new question for the district became how to implement these tools in a way that would protect all participants without hampering the fluid communication people depended upon.