Horry school board chairman says he didn’t mean to agree with disparaging remark about Quran

The Horry County School Board chairman walked back a comment he made at a school board meeting Monday night, stating he did not believe the Quran was “written by the devil.”

“If (the Quran) were dictated, that angel was the demon,” Pat Milley said at the end of her allotted five minutes.

“That’s right,” School Board Chairman David Cox said.

Milley, founder of the Children’s Bible Story Books in Every Home, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, has been speaking at the board for years. She told the board she “wasn’t scared of the Quran.”

On Tuesday morning, Cox told The Sun News that he was attempting to dismiss her and move on to the next public speaker.

“She was over her five minutes so I was basically just dismissing her, I wasn’t agreeing with her.”

At Monday’s meeting, Milley presented three books to the school board, asking them to allow her nonprofit to put the books into the hallways.

One book was the Bible.

A retired teacher, Milley said she advocates for shorter instruction time and an overhaul of the Common Core school system as well.

Other items discussed included building progress on Whittemore Middle School, and adding three additional courses for the 2023-24 school year.

Those courses are Exploratory World Languages, High School 101 and Application of Health Sciences.

This story was originally published April 18, 2023 at 4:57 PM.