Kaitlyn August- People You Should Know- Celebrating an Everyday Heroine

Entertainment, People You Should Know — By Buddy Sampson on December 7, 2020 at 2:53 pm

Celebrating an Everyday Heroine

By Buddy Sampson

We all realize that everyday heroes often arise from the most adverse of circumstances. Life can change in one fleeting moment- we can never predict, with any reasonable measure of human understanding, why things happen that suddenly change the course of our lives.

Actress/Filmmaker/Artist Kaitlyn August has an amazing but poignant story to tell. She survived the infamous Parkland, Florida shooting on February 14, 2018 in which, according to the Miami Herald 14 students lost their lives, along with a teacher, an athletic director and a football coach. 17 others were injured in the horrific incident, and adjusting, in the aftermath of such an experience is understandably difficult, something that most of us will never experience in our lifetimes.

She grew up in West Newton, Pennsylvania, a small town that brings her fond memories. “It’s a really really small town,” she said. “It’s like one of those towns where everybody knows everybody. They have a main street where it has all those little old stores you won’t find anywhere else. They have train tracks going through the town, they have their own community pool, they have their own community library and they used to hold wrestling shows in this gym by my Grandma’s house where people go and play basketball to exercise and stuff and used hold wrestling matches there which my Dad used to film.” Perhaps those filming sessions were the start of her interest in being a filmmaker. As a child growing up, her favorite actors were Johnny Depp and Ryan Reynolds. “I think they’re amazing and they’re hilarious,” she said. “I love their humor. They’re so kind to their fans. It’s just makes me so happy. Their movies are kind of part of my childhood.”

However, her family made a decision to move to Austin, Texas for a better job opportunity. “Austin was really fun,” said Kaitlyn. “You could trade fossils for different things which I thought was super cool.” She also made a lot of great friends in Austin, where she started theater and acting classes. “A better job opportunity arose in Tampa, Florida. And Kaitlyn and her family relocated. It, at times was a difficult adjustment for Kaitlyn. She attended two middle schools there. “It was not good at all, “she reflected. “The middle school I was going to, I was getting bullied so we moved to Parkland and it was way better there.” The family made the decision to move to Parkland, Florida and she began to find her acting groove, taking acting classes at Westglades Middle School there.

She was on the color guard of Stoneman Douglas High School, the eventual location of the Parkland, Florida shooting. But what is the color guard and what does it do? “In the color guard you either spin flag, a rifle, a saber or a swing flag, or you can do all of them, it really depends on your skill level,” she said.  She describes the school as tense, even before the shooting. “Everyone was on edge,” she said. “They tried to get us to have clear back packs, but no one wanted that.”

The incident, widely publicized in the news cycle of the events that occurred on February 14^th, 2018 at the school, resulted in several deaths, including students she knew. Nikolas Cruz, an ex-student of the school went on a shooting rampage, killing 17 people and wounding 17 others. Kaitlyn, who has been diagnosed with anxiety and depression, as a direct result of the Parkland Florida shooting, has had an extremely difficult time. “I got Baker Acted for four days,” she said. The Baker Act, according to UFHealth.org is a Florida law that “enables families and loved ones to provide emergency mental health services and temporary detention for people that are impaired because of their mental illness, and who are unable to determine their needs for treatment.” Still, despite all the trauma she experienced, she still tried to resume a normal life, returning to the color guard. “For me I was spinning a regular tall flag and a swing flag because I was just starting out and I was about to go on to rifle, but then I quit because it was stressing me out too much. While I was in color guard, I actually had two seizures at a few competitions.”

The seizures were brought on due to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). At one of the events, fireworks were inappropriately displayed. “They shot them up unexpectedly without telling us and it triggered all of us and we all started crying and screaming,” she said. “I don’t plan on going back. It was too stressful.”

Kaitlyn, when not working on her craft as an actress spends a lot of her time designing jewelry. The talented 17-year old is excited about the prospect of marketing her designs. “So far, I’ve only made earrings,” she said, “but I want to make necklaces and stuff like that. I saw people make stuff and put it on Etsy and I thought that would be so cool if I can make my own stuff just like those people. I gave it a try and I really enjoyed it.” An avid reader, she lists fantasy books, such as “Harry Potter,” “Wings of Fire” and “Warrior Cats” among her favorites. When asked if she would like to play a character in an adaptation of one of the fantasy novels she loves Kaitlyn had quite a candid answer. “Probably, if we were going by let’s say The Hobbit or something like that, those sorts of books, I can see myself playing one of the elves or something like that,” she laughed. But why an elf? “Because they’ve always been my favorite and they’re so elegant and they like archery and animals and they love nature and I like all that stuff too,” she explained. Strangely enough, she envisions herself in a suspenseful genre of movies. “Horror is my favorite genre,” she laughed. “I’ve always wanted to be in a horror film or a horror short.” She’s working now with Suzanne De Laurentiis on a short film based on her experience at Stoneman Douglas high school.

Why tell this story and why now? “It’s for other people that have gone through the same thing, I know there are other kids that have gone through the same thing and they only think there’s one way out and that’s by hurting themselves and doing other things like that,” she explained. “But there are other people that are there for you, you can talk to people, there are friends that are there you can talk to.”

Kaitlyn August, a courageous young lady is telling her story to help others, which makes her an American hero, a survivor of unspeakable tragedy and horror.  Her advice to others is simple. “Don’t ever let yourself fall into the hole of sadness,” said Kaitlyn August. “Because I don’t want to see others suffer, like me and my friends did, I don’t want them to go into that deep sad state that all of us went through.”

Real heroes- or in the case of Kaitlyn August a heroine- are born out of how an individual manages unspeakable tragedy and finds a modicum of comfort for others, shedding an illuminating light, so perhaps another such tragedy may be averted.  Kaitlyn August, an actress, filmmaker and artist, a real, everyday heroine should be celebrated. And that’s why she’s one of the People You Should Know.

Her Instagram? @sushiikat.