Nursing Board Closes Complaint Against Nolan Wells' Mother

A smiling young man wearing a white football jersey with the number 16 and the word "Bears" stands next to a young woman wearing glasses. — Source: Christine Wonsley / facebook

The Mississippi Board of Nursing has closed an investigation into a professional misconduct complaint filed against Christine Wonsley, the mother of Nolan Wells.

The Mississippi Free Press reports that the board informed Wonsley on Wednesday that an anonymous complaint has been filed against her. Ben Crump, one of the attorneys representing Wells’ family, issued a statement on Wednesday where he called the complaint a “warning shot” intended to intimidate a grieving mother. Crump noted that in all of Wonsley’s years of working as a nurse, she has never received a complaint until now.

“As she continues to grieve her son and seek answers about what happened to him, she is now also forced to defend her professional record,” Crump said in the statement. “No family should accept that, and no institution should tolerate it.”

The Mississippi Free Press reached out to the Mississippi Board of Nursing about the nature of the complaint. “Pursuant to Mississippi Code Annotated § 73-15-31, all investigations are confidential and not subject to subpoena or record request,” the Board of Nursing said in a statement sent to the Free Press. “The Board is legislatively charged with protecting the public and is complaint-driven. As such, the Board is required by law to investigate any and all complaints filed with the Board.”

Last month, Nolan Wells went to a Fourth of July party with a group of white friends on a barrier island off the coast of Mississippi. His “friends” returned home without him that afternoon, and Wells was reported missing the next day. After a two-day search, Wells’ body was found on the coast of one of the barrier islands. We still don’t know the exact cause of Wells’ death, as the state Medical Examiner’s Office won’t release its autopsy findings until they are presented before a grand jury.

The way white America has harassed Christine Wonsley for simply wanting answers about what happened to her son is genuinely disgusting. White public opinion has been critical of Wonsley and tried to blame Nolan for his own death, whereas Nolan’s “friends” who left him on the island have launched a GiveSendGo, and that’s perfectly fine. It’s worth noting that GiveSendGo is the favored crowdfunding platform for white conservatives after they get caught doing something blatantly racist.

It’s not Wells or Wonsley’s fault that America, and Mississippi in particular, have such an extensive history of anti-Black racism that it’s hard not to consider the possibility that Wells’ death after attending a predominantly white event was potentially racially motivated. The optics aren’t helped by the fact that Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves is a noted Confederacy apologist who has only spoken about Nolan Wells to insult Crump and any other person who has brought attention to the case.

Apparently, the professional misconduct complaint didn’t carry weight, as Wonsley said the case was closed in a Facebook post on Wednesday. “Thank you to all of those who have constantly kept us in your prayers. This definitely has added more hurt to an already devastating time because I love my job and I love my patients,” Wonsley wrote.

A young man died, and instead of showing empathy to the family and supporting their efforts to find out what happened, people want to make an awful situation worse. Yet somehow white America doesn’t understand why we don’t trust them.