$1.50
THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 2022
146th Year, No. 71
JUN E 1–8,
WINNER OF 16 ONPA AWARDS IN 2021
INSIDE CHECK OUT UMATILLA BEATS FOR BABIES IN GO!
HERMISTON
Jackie Linton
is fi rst African
American to serve
on the Hermiston
City Council
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
A voice of change
Linton pointed out that there are
not many Black people in Hermis-
ton. If there were more, she said,
it would have been more likely for
African Americans to have run for
and won offi ces. She said she saw
more people of her race when she
was a child, but many moved out of
town, as they chased jobs in bigger
cities.
She did not seek offi ce to help the
people of one particular race.
“I want to help all of Hermiston,”
she said, and people voted for her
because they wanted change.
See History, Page A6
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PA GE 14
G o Hog
Wild in
Students walk
PA G E 8
to classes
during passing
time Friday,
May 27, 2022,
at Sunridge
Middle School,
Pendleton.
Charles Byram,
Pendleton
police chief,
said his
department’s
response to a
shooter in a
school is to set
up a command
post, identify
the threat, get
people out and
“to take out the
threat.”
Making
history
HERMISTON — Jackie Linton
is set to be the fi rst African Amer-
ican person on the Hermiston City
Council, according to the mayor
and several people within Hermis-
ton city government.
“I’m very happy,” she said in an
interview last week.
Election Day was May 17.
On Memorial Day, Monday,
May 30, the vote count in her race
against City Councilor Lori Davis
was 906-817, giving Linton roughly
a 5% advantage over the long-serv-
ing and well-respected incumbent.
While these fi gures remain unoffi -
cial, people at the city are accepting
Linton’s victory as fact and plan-
ning for her to take an oath of offi ce
with other recently elected city
council members at the start of the
new year.
“Hermiston City Council has
worked hard over the last decade to
refl ect our diverse population and
Mrs. Linton, being the fi rst Afri-
can American, and another female
to serve on the council, shows the
commitment to our community to
refl ect its diverse makeup,” Herm-
iston Mayor David Drotzmann said.
Linton is a member of the board
of the Hermiston Public Library
and regularly attends, and speaks
up at, city council meetings. She ran
against Davis to join the council in
2018 but lost that election.
“Jackie has been an active citi-
zen participant at our city council
meetings and various committees
for well over a year,” Drotzmann
said. “She’s engaged in her commu-
nity and will be a welcome addition
to the council.”
202 2
Join
Beats fo Celebrate Lis
ten
r Pion
Babies
Side A
Days eer
PA GE 4
concer
PA GE 13
Kathy Aney/
East Oregonian
‘Sworn to take out the threat’
Local police chiefs explain
procedures for taking on
school shooters in wake
of Texas massacre
By JOHN TILLMAN
and PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
ENDLETON — Police not taking
action May 24 to stop a gunman
in Uvalde, Texas, before he slayed
two teachers and 19 children again
raised the issue of what police
should do when a school is under
attack.
Some local police chiefs addressed their
departments’ procedures and training when
it comes to taking on a school shooter.
“Our best practice standard in active
shooter situations is to go ‘direct to threat,’”
Pendleton Police Chief Charles Byram said.
“We are sworn to take out the threat.”
The fi rst person on the scene responds
and communicates with other police, fi re
and health departments.
“We can mitigate the situation after the
fact,” he said. “Responders can’t foresee
everything, so we have to remain fl uid. We
set up a command post, identify who is the
threat and get people out.”
P
East Oregonian, File
Offi cers from multiple law enforcement agencies clear classrooms of victims during an ac-
tive shooter drill April 13, 2018, in Boardman.
Pendleton police protocol is to train in
the schools, with district staff , when not in
session.
“The fi re and health departments are
familiar with our verbiage,” Byram said.
“We plan for the worst, always looking for
new ways to respond to schools or big box
stores. To use a sports analogy, we practice
like we play.”
Hermiston Chief of Police Jason Edmis-
ton said no one can know how individual
offi cers will respond when their own lives
are on the line, but he was adamant about
his force’s protocols and training for active
shooter situations.
“The lesson Columbine taught us, now
almost 25 years ago, was that you can’t wait
to form up a team to go in, much less for
SWAT, which we don’t even have in Eastern
Oregon. Oregon State Police SWAT takes
four or fi ve hours to get to us.”
All Hermiston police officers have a
master key that opens all doors in all schools,
Edmiston stated.
See Threat, Page A6
Holocaust survivor recounts life under Nazis
Anneke Bloomfi eld
has packed house
for presentation at
Pendleton library
former school teacher.
Avoiding the ‘J’ stamp
By JOHN TILLMAN
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Anneke
Bloomfi eld was 5 years old in the
Netherlands in May 1940 when
Nazi Germany invaded her country.
The occupation regime ordered
Dutch males ages 16-40 to turn
themselves in for forced labor.
German troops blocked off streets
and searched houses. Bloomfi eld
was traumatized when soldiers
pounded on their door, demanded
entry and searched every room,
including hers.
“I was so scared when he came
to my bedroom,” Bloomfi eld said.
“I had nightmares for a couple years
after that.”
Now 82 years later, Bloomfi eld,
an outreach speaker for the Oregon
Jewish Museum and Holocaust
Education Center, recounted her
young life under the Nazi occu-
pation to a packed house Tuesday,
May 31, at the Pendleton Public
Library. The presentation was in
conjunction with the traveling
exhibit “Americans and the Holo-
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Holocaust survivor Anneke Bloomfi eld shares her memories of being
a child from the Netherlands hiding in safe houses to a large audience
Tuesday, May 31, 2022, at the Pendleton Public Library.
caust,” on display at the library until
July 1.
Her partner, Jerry Paster, said
Bloomfi eld dedicates her talks on
her experiences in World War II
to her father, Thomas Siebel. He
worked for oil company Royal
Dutch Shell. Her mother was a
Bloomfield was born in The
Hague, seat of government of the
Netherlands, in April 1935. She
said her father saw the threat Nazis
posed before the war began in 1939.
He made every eff ort to remove
Judaism from his family’s life. They
moved from the Jewish quarter of
The Hague to a Christian neighbor-
hood, where they bought a three-
story house.
They stopped going to temple
and instead attended church on
Sundays. Her father started working
in the church library, so community
members would see him and think
he was Christian.
Bloomfi eld and her siblings were
taken out of Jewish day school and
put into Christian schools.
“There was a big school open
to all just two blocks away,” she
said, “but he sent me to a Christian
school seven blocks away.”
Bloomfi eld’s maternal grandpar-
ents were rich but stuff y. She adored
her father’s poor but loving parents.
Even though they lived in Delft, 7
miles distant by road, she visited
them on the blue scooter she got
from her rich grandparents on her
fi fth birthday.
See Survivor, Page A6