SARASOTA, Fla., Oct. 8 (UPI) — A Florida school district will pay $200,000 to each of the families of three teens who died after being hypnotized by their high school principal.
The Sarasota County School Board unanimously approved a settlement Tuesday with the families of three North Port High School students putting an end to a case that began a year ago when the school’s former principal admitted he hypnotized 16-year-old Wesley McKinley the day before he committed suicide in April 2011.
The investigation that followed revealed George Kenney hypnotized up to 75 students, staffers and others between 2006 and the day McKinley died. Though no link could tie Kenney to the deaths of McKinley, 16-year-old Marcus Freeman and 17-year-old Brittany Palumbo. All three teens died shortly after being hypnotized.
Palumbo, like McKinley, committed suicide after allegedly being hypnotized by Kenney. Freeman died in a car accident after allegedly hypnotizing himself using a technique Kenney taught him.
A school basketball player said the principal hypnotized him up to 40 times to help him concentrate
“It’s something they will never get over. It’s probably the worst loss that can happen to a parent is to lose a child, especially needlessly because you had someone who decided to perform medical services on kids without a license,” Damian Mallard, attorney for the families, said. “He altered the underdeveloped brains of teenagers, and they all ended up dead because of it.”
Kenney resigned from the school in 2012 and served a year of probation after pleading no contest to unlawful practice of hypnosis.
