A day of celebration was transformed into a day of turmoil on Friday, Aug. 22 as fallout from the Ferguson protests lead to the cancellation of a Glendale tradition. The community chose not to hold their annual ice cream social, as earlier in the day a local police officer’s inflammatory Facebook statuses ignited a controversy in the community.

Officer Matthew Pappert was suspended from the Glendale police force the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 22 after posting messages on Facebook calling for Ferguson protesters to be “put down like a rabid dog,” spurring the city to shut down the day’s festivities.

“We’re held to a standard like anybody else is. What a police officer says, whether in social media, in public or in private, is held to that standard,” Chad Walton, resource officer, said.

Glendale police immediately launched an investigation the morning of Aug. 22, after which Pappert was suspended from his position. The same day, city administration decided to cancel all events scheduled for the day.

KHS girls’ cross country had planned on staffing the cancelled ice cream social, a yearly volunteering project for the team. The team had hoped to use the ice cream social as part of an effort to expand their volunteering program.

“We have about 15 cross country runners who volunteer to paint faces for little kids. There are 80 girls, so we want to be able to give back,” Gina Woodard, girls’ cross country coach, said.

Walton saw the incident as an example of the community successfully dealing with a side effect of the Ferguson crisis.

“[Ferguson] got a lot of press, so I think we’ve handled it pretty well in our own community, to not let things get out of hand,” Walton said.

Bella Boshara, junior and cross country team member, also believes the city’s reaction represents a local community handling a much larger issue.

“The Ferguson event is getting everywhere, making a big impact throughout the country,” Boshara said. “So cancelling an ice cream social doesn’t seem like too minor a thing.”