Freeman High School: For Kaylie Smith, ‘Freeman Strong’ continues to offer lessons in family, resilience

Resilience is a quality that folks in the Freeman school community know a lot about, and there is no better example of that than Freeman High School senior Kaylie Smith.

The emotional pain from the school shooting in the high school almost five years ago lingers, and everyone in the community has had to navigate their own way through the aftermath of that trauma.

“I was in the eighth grade then,” Smith said, “and the next year after it happened, I was very scared to come to the high school. But when people here talk about the Freeman Family, they mean it. I got lots of support from my family and friends, including my best friend who was one of the shooting victims. I still think about it a lot, but I tell myself that I’m OK.”

That is not the only hurdle that Smith has had to clear on her way to her role as a competitive dancer with the Spokane Elite Dance Studio and two-year class president at Freeman.

“I have another big struggle,” she said. “I have a stutter when I talk, and I have to work hard to overcome it. But I am determined to never let it get in the way for me. This is who God made me to be, and we all have our own thing to struggle with.”

Smith has attended Freeman since preschool, and both her parents are teachers in the district. She has loved her experience there.

“We’re a small school, and we’re super-tight. All the buildings are so close together that we get to see the younger students, too. We celebrate everyone and try hard to build each other up, not tear anyone down.”

Smith started dance in third grade, moved to Elite three years later and started competing because of the challenge. Her All-Star team competes in the senior hip-hop category.

“I chose hip-hop because it’s so different from other styles, nontraditional. I love the confidence that it gave me. I used to do jazz, tap and ballet and was OK at them, but it’s in hip-hop that I’m able to really express who I am. I can fully be myself.”

This will be her final year of dance. Next fall, she’ll be enrolled at Paul Mitchell the School in Spokane. Her program there will last up to 11 months. After that, she’ll be looking for a job as a stylist and hopes eventually to have her own salon.

“Ever since I was little,” she said, “I’ve loved styling my own hair and my friends’. I’ve done their hair for all the dances, and I have to say that it looks pretty great!”

Freeman teacher Angela Frye has had Smith in her advisory group and in classes since her freshman year and sings her praises.

“What stands out about Kaylie is how kind she is to everyone,” she said. “She is both empathetic and sympathetic, and she is very aware of how she treats her peers. She lights up every room she enters. Every time I see Kaylie, it makes me feel better.”