STATESBORO — Reports of protestors standing outside of author Jennine Capó Crucet’s hotel Wednesday night after her speech at Georgia Southern University have been deemed inaccurate as the owner of the lodging Crucet stayed denied Saturday any such protest, as first reported by Eagle News.

Helen Cannon, owner of Georgia’s Bed and Breakfast on South Zetterower Road, said that Crucet did stay with her Wednesday night.

“And I heard somebody coming down my stairs, and I thought ‘what is this?’ and I went to the door and the professor had already — must have called her,” Cannon said. “They were outside and I just said ‘what’s going on? What’s going on?’ And she said ‘umm we are taking her to Pooler.’ And I said ‘what did I do wrong?’ And she said ‘oh nothing nothing there’s a problem at Georgia Southern.’”

The first report of a protest or gathering outside Crucet’s hotel came from a letter written by the GS writing and linguistics department on Thursday.

“Some students burned copies of Crucet’s book and even gathered outside her hotel,” the statement read. 

In a statement released by Crucet Friday afternoon, the author said that her hosts moved her to another hotel in town.

“It was only when I read the statement from GSU’s writing and rhetoric department that I learned a crowd had formed outside the original accommodations,” Crucet’s statement read.

Russell Willerton, Ph.D, Department Chair of Writing and Linguistics, wrote the statement from the department, but took back some of his original statement on Saturday.

“I trusted it based on the source, but in retrospect, I should not have repeated anything that I could not directly track to Professor Crucet,” Willerton said in an interview with Eagle News. “I accept responsibility for my error.”

The University said in an email to The George-Anne Friday saying that there was no knowledge of any protests or gathering. The email also said that Crucet requested to be moved.

McClain Baxley, The George-Anne Editor-in-Chief, gaeditor@georgiasouthern.edu

Emily McLeod, The George-Anne Contributor, gaeditor@georgiasouthern.edu