High school should be such a fun time because you’re slowly discovering who you really are and taking part in quintessential activities, like heading to the Friday night football game with friends or going to the spring dance. It’s sad to think about teens who don’t get to experience some of those special moments due to tragic or even bizarre circumstances. In spring 2011, three Florida high school students died within weeks of one another after having private hypnosis sessions with their school principal.
In 2011, three students from North Port High School in North Port, Florida, Marcus Freeman, Wesley McKinley, and Brittany Palumbo, died just weeks after being privately hypnotized by their school principal, Dr. George Kenney, per People.
According to People, Dr. Kenney hypnotized more than 70 people, including the three students who died, “during his tenure, despite never being a licensed hypnotherapist.” Kenney “believed that his mystical power had helped hordes of clients,” especially when it came to helping students overcome things like test anxiety and improving their focus for sports and educational endeavors, per Tyla.
In the documentary, Look Into My Eyes, Marcus Freeman’s best friend claimed that his friend was going to repeat sessions every Friday before football games to help him not feel pain while playing, per People. The friend explained that Kenney would put his friend in a “trance” where he was supposed to be mentally present but not be able to feel his body. Kenney claimed that the hypnosis was used to “see things more slowly on the field” and not to “stop physical pain,” per the magazine.
According to The Guardian, Freeman lost control of his car in March 2011, while driving home from a dentist appointment with his girlfriend. His girlfriend told police that Freeman “had a strange look on his face” moments before the vehicle “veered off an interstate,” per the news outlet.
A few weeks later, 16-year-old Wesley McKinley was found hanging from a tree outside his home, per The Guardian. His friends testified that he had been “acting strange” that day. Seventeen-year-old Brittany Palumbo, was found by her parents hanging in her bedroom three weeks after McKinley’s death, reported the news outlet.
According to People, Kenney pleaded no contest “to practicing therapeutic hypnosis without a license” and resigned from his job at the school in June, 2012. He was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of six months of probation and 50 hours of community service.
Our thoughts are with the families and friends who most certainly still miss their loved ones over a decade later.
