Anti-Bullying Platform Is Personal For Miss Limestone College

Ridiculed and dismissed.

This picture is completely at odds with the outgoing, confident personality Keasha Currence projected March 9 when Miss Limestone College headed into a Luther Vaughan Elementary kindergarten classroom.

The marketing major was the student body president her senior year at South Pointe High School in Rock Hill where she was a cheerleader and played basketball and softball.

Currence, 22 years old, is now preparing for the Miss South Carolina pageant on June 21-25 at Township Auditorium in Columbia. She plans to perform a jazz dance in the talent competition.

Each pageant titleholder has a community service platform. Currence’s platform focuses on preventing bullying in schools and is entitled “Don’t Stand By, Stand Up.”

Currence did not receive a warm welcome when she attended school in her hometown. She recalls moments when her classmates would call her names and attempt to cause her trouble.

“I was bullied throughout elementary school, middle school, and high school. It used to really bother me when people would say things about me that were not true,” Currence said. “What I have realized is God put each of us here for a reason, and that’s to be the best person we can be. I learned to be strong, and to speak up and educate people.”

Miss Limestone College joined Cherokee County sheriff’s deputies and athletes earlier this month for a walk held by Luther Vaughan Elementary.

More than 400 students and parents walked before school from the National Guard Armory to Luther Vaughan Elementary for the South Carolina Walk to School Day.

After a school assembly, Currence spent time reading the children’s book “Llama Llama and the Bully Goat” to Luther Vaughan classes. Gardner-Webb College football players defensive end Donovan Manning from Gaffney and defensive tackle Josh Houser role-played to show the proper way for kindergarten students to handle school bullies.

“Children grow up hearing the phrase ‘Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.’ Words do hurt,” Currence told the Luther Vaughan students. “There is a difference between tattling and telling an adult when it comes to bullying. My goal is to encourage children that it’s ok to stand up and help someone.”

Currence plans to bring her anti-bullying education program into more Cherokee County schools and community events in the coming months. Her life has become quite busy in recent weeks as the Limestone College senior finishes her spring academic work, preps for Miss South Carolina activities and a member of the college’s dance team.

The Limestone dance team competed in the national Cheer LTD dance championship March 18-20 in Myrtle Beach and brought home two National Championships.

Currence joins Gaffney native Alayna Downey as dance team members that have been crowned Miss Limestone and competed in the Miss South Carolina scholarship pageant in the past two years. Contestants participate in interviews, rehearsals, public appearances and many other activities planned by the pageant.
 

The event highlights the intelligence and community involvement of the state’s best young women.
 

“Miss Limestone College is the first pageant I have ever done. I had never really thought about being a pageant before. Since this is my senior year, my mom thought the pageant could lead to doing something really good in the community,” she said. “I’m really excited. It’s a great honor to compete in the Miss South Carolina pageant. I want to reach out in the community and bring people together. I want to make a difference.”

(Article by Scott Powell, The Gaffney Ledger).