EITC Leader worked at Umpqua college, opens up about shooting
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IDAHO FALLS – The interim president of Eastern Idaho Technical College, Rick Aman, is speaking out about Thursday’s shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon.
Aman served as the interim vice president at Oregon University for one year.
EastIdahoNews.com reporter Natalia Hepworth spoke with Aman Friday afternoon.
Natalia Hepworth, EastIdahoNews.com reporter: What was your initial reaction to the open fire at Upmqua?
Rick Aman, EITC interim president: As with anybody it would be shock. It’s a beautiful campus a classic community college. Kind of a rural type setting, very peaceful, serene. It would be the last place on earth that I think you would expect that kind of horrific news.
Hepworth: From a recent article a victim claims the shooter was targeting Christians, was there any kind of religious divide?
Aman: No not that I could tell. This really seems to be a one off kind of event. Within the first 24 hours of a horrific event like this we really don’t know what’s happened.
Hepworth: How do you see the University recovering from an event like this?
Aman: This is a resilient group they know what they are doing. They know the purpose, they know the value of what they bring to a small community. Who knows how long it takes, it’s a traumatic event. That college is going to come back. They will learn some lessons from it. All of us, especially us here in Idaho can learn from what went well, and what didn’t go well.
I recall during an in-service where we had and active shooter drill. Some people take it seriously some people don’t. You know you go through that, but you go through it for that exact thing that happened yesterday. It’s horrific, it never should have happened, but what is it can we learn from it? What is it can we do better as educators? What worked? Were lives saved because things were done properly?”
Hepworth: Any final thoughts?
Aman: As collegues I think that all of us that are in this post secondary education can certainly feel empathy or sadness for that community.