George Kenney, Hypnotizing Principal, Allegedly Lied About Putting Students In Trance

A Florida high school principal defied school orders to stop hypnotizing students and lied about casting spells on two students who later committed suicide and another who perished in a car crash, according to a report.

Investigators found that North Port High School Principal George Kenney hypnotized up to 75 people, including students, staff and parents, the Sarasota Herald Tribune reported.

Kenney came under fire after student Wesley McKinley killed himself in April and his parents began questioning the one-on-one hypnosis sessions that took place weeks before their son died.

The report revealed that the principal had also hypnotized Brittany Palumbo five months before her May suicide. The report said that Kenney entranced Marcus Freeman twice in the weeks before the student died in an auto accident in March.

Earlier reports said Kenney performed hypnosis to help students focus in class. The school district permitted the principal to demonstrate hypnosis in front of groups in psychology class, but was unaware that he secretly had one-on-one sessions with students, according to ABC News

According to the new report, Kenney lied to school officials and investigators about his private hypnosis, but later confessed. HIs lawyer Mark Zimmerman said his client misspoke under questioning because of the stress.

The school district has denied there's any link between they hypnosis and suicides, ABC reported.

WATCH:

Comments

[Rivaldi Loveyou]

05:36 AM on 08/22/2011

I feel sorry for the kids..

[airtighttruth]

11:19 PM on 07/04/2011

People don't realize that whenever you open your mind such as in hypnotizm, you open it up to the devil, to lying spirits, to evil influences, etc., in addition to what it is you were seeking. Other ways people do this is in deep meditation, kundalini, certain types of prayer where words are spoken over and over repeatedly such as like a mantra. repetitive music is also a way of opening the mind, so do be careful and guard your mind preciously. Let only Jesus in. Read Warren Smith's book, A Wonderful Deception for more information.

[hmadden]

11:17 PM on 07/04/2011

Guilty or not (I don't have enough information to judge), this gentleman is screwed.

[idunno56455]

02:54 AM on 07/03/2011

In my opinion, either this guy had REALLY bad luck, (picking who to hypnotise) or the private sessions weren't of him hypnotising the students but maybe something inappropropriate that would have started to create problems. The deaths don't seem to have such a direct correlation with the hypnotism that he should be connected with those although he still shouldn't have lied that he stopped.

[Jake Thomas]

08:15 PM on 07/01/2011

I feel sorry for the guy, he sounds like a scapegoat, people are making a lot of assumptions. He may have shown poor judgement but it does not sound like he behaved criminally . It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

[Nightling]

06:35 PM on 07/01/2011

I am saddened that there are human beings behaving like witch hunters about this. I fear that if certain people had their way this poor man would be burned at the stake as a witch. No matter how well articulated an accusation or theory hypnosis simply doesn't work like that. Stop searching for a scapegoat. Leave this poor man alone and accept that tragedies and accidents happen.

[Ayla87]

11:51 AM on 07/01/2011

A few things to point out regarding this story:

1) It is IMPOSSIBLE to compel anything from anyone while under hypnosis. It doesn't matter if you're 6, 16, or 61. If you don't want to do something, you won't do it. This is why hypnosis has a decent track record among cigarette smokers and the obese. Because the people seeking therapy for these problems actually want to change their behavior. The two teenagers who offed themselves were suicidal well before this man hypnotized them. And I highly doubt that a man who has made working with teenagers his career would have lead them, willingly or not, past the brink to suicide.

2) Students who were hypnotized by this man volunteered for the therapy. It's not like they're GPA's dipped below a certain point and they were ordered into therapy. They actively sought his help.

3) There is absolutely no link between hypnotism and poor driving. Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness but once the session ends, you're back to your regular cognitive state. The boy who died in a car crash, did so because of his own lack of skill as a driver. Hypnosis had nothing to do with it.

Stop drinking Hollywood's Koolaid people. Hypnosis is not the reason why these three teens died.

[Nightling]

06:31 PM on 07/01/2011

What frightens me is that there are full grown adults who believe this B movie drivel.

[Sammie55]

06:37 AM on 07/01/2011

My guess is they wouldn't know even it they weren't hypnotized.

[Nightling]

04:14 AM on 07/01/2011

I'm frightened for humanity. The people demonizing this man don't believe in the twenty first century. Crawl back into the dark ages you ignorant peasants and put away the pitchforks and torches.

[Watersisland]

02:36 AM on 07/01/2011

The guy's a WACKO.....an egtostical, self-promoting, controlling WACKO! Children....are VERY easily influenced. Additionally, many H.S. kids suffer terrible insecurities----afraid of being though of as "kids"....but yet no-where's NEAR being an adult. They RELY on adults...and as much as they may resent adults....they feel terribly inferrior to them.
This "adult"...in a position of superiority....abused his position HORRIBLY! Debate the effects of "hypnotism" as you wish....but if you tell these gullable and insecure kids that they have been "hypnotized"..... then they have no other reasonable expectation other than to believe that they have been "psychologically manipulated". Their own mental defenses have been lowered, they are more apt to say things or behave in ways that they would not normally have....beCAUSE their own defense mechanisms have been lowered. Hypnotism IS real. It is very useful in anything from getting people to quit smoking....to getting people to remember things....things that are DEEPLY burried in their memory or their psyche. The problem IS....George Kenny is NOT...a psychologist, nor a psychiatrist, nor is he trained in any way as to know HOW to deal with peoples emotions after his claims of "hypnotizing" them. They are vulnerable, impressionable, and now very FEARFUL and distracted.....thanks to this WACKO masquerading as a "hypnotist". This school district is VERY liable for his actions.

[Watersisland]

03:16 AM on 07/01/2011

(cont.) What are the chances that three students (whether either previously very mentally healthy, OR... even if already on unstable mental ground)....ALL after being "hypnotized" by a school principal....are suddenly DEAD? Good luck with the jury. He should be very lucky if criminnal charges aren't preferred against him.

[WarriorLemming]

11:17 AM on 07/01/2011

Very informative post, Watersisland, I know very little about hypnosis and has no idea it was possible that someone who was hypnotized could be convinced to hurt themselves.

[Nightling]

06:28 PM on 07/01/2011

No one can be hypnotized into doing something they don't want to do. That only happens in the movies. I am terrified that you actually believe what you are saying.

[VelveteenLady]

01:51 AM on 07/01/2011

Although the prevailing belief is that one will not do, under hypnosis, anything that one would not do while not under hypnosis, there is still a chilling possibility to this story.

Some hypnosis involves regression, i.e., going back into one's past, sometimes to excruciatingly painful times, that the mind represses. If this principal was an unlicensed and/or unqualified hypnotist and participated in that kind of hypnosis with either of the students who took their lives, the implications are horrific. Just a theory, but it is possible that he brought them back to some painful time in their lives and left them there, without benefit of psychotherapy to deal with what the hypnosis "dug up." This, combined with normal adolescent angst, could be a deadly combination.

The problem would be proving it. Without the students there to tell their stories, I don't see how the principal could be implicated in their deaths. Certainly, he deserves to be punished, after due process finds him accountable.

[DessLoch]

09:31 AM on 07/01/2011

Yep, it's a toughie, impossible to prosecute. At best a reprimand by officials.

It reminds me of the Megan Meier suicide where the neighbor mom "Lori Drew" set up a fake MySpace account as a 16 year old boy "Josh" with the intent of developing an online relationship with Megan and then humiliating her with it.

The parents of the girl were especially angry because their neighbor knew Meghan was on medication and had self-esteem issues.

"According to Meier's father, Ronald Meier, and a neighbor who had discussed the hoax with Drew, the last message sent by the Evans account read: "Everybody in O'Fallon knows who you are. You are a bad person and everybody hates you. Have a bad rest of your life. The world would be a better place without you." Meier responded with a message reading "You’re the kind of boy a girl would kill herself over." The last few correspondences were made via AOL Messenger instead of Myspace. She was found 20 minutes later in her bedroom closet; Megan had hanged herself. Despite attempts to revive her, she was pronounced dead the following day."

Our laws do not have the ability to go after the most e v i l of people, technically they've committed no crime which points to the inadequacy of our system to protect emotionally vulnerable children and teens.

[buffgyal]

11:47 AM on 07/01/2011

why does this case remind you have megan meier? is it the assumption that as lori drew knew about megan's unfortunate circumstances of being on medication and having self-esteem issues, and this principal is in the same scenario, or is it because he may not be punished for the crime of facilitating or causing their suicides by his actions?

the reason i ask this long winded question is because i thought lori drew got charged, and prosecuted to the full extent of the law in this "online bulling" case?

[Nightling]

06:29 PM on 07/01/2011

You scare me. You sound like a seventeenth century witch hunter in comparing cyberbullying to a man being accused of things scientifically impossible.

[dwilsonfl]

01:14 AM on 07/01/2011

The man was told by his superior to stop the hynosis of students and he failed to do so.

[neesee]

12:30 AM on 07/01/2011

I'm not sure why I'm even responding to this drivel. The principal hypnotized students and then they killed themselves????? I don't think so. He may believe that he can help students focus through hypnotism but it sure doesn't have anything to do with suicides. No more than sitting around chanting and doing yoga.

[WarriorLemming]

11:23 AM on 07/01/2011

Is that you, Principal George Kenney?

[Dieseldagreat98]

11:56 PM on 06/30/2011

To say that the hypnosis sessions had no correlation to the suicides is saying that suicides in high school are normal. They're not normal. He needs to be in jail asap.

[Nightling]

12:53 AM on 07/01/2011

Sigseldargreat if you were born in 1998 that would explain a lot and then I can forgive your ignroance. If not, than I pity you. Any psychiatrist will tell you that it is NOT possible to hypnotize anyone into doing something they don't actually want to do. That's why there are no actual laws on the books against hypnosis, because it cannot cause you to go against your own nature. Hypnosis can only do that in bad B movies. Do a little research before conducting witch hunts, please!

[Sammie55]

06:42 AM on 07/01/2011

He didn't have to" hypnotize them into somthing they didn't want to do." All he had to do was suggest something... all he had to do was plant an idea that, in a 17yr old brain, took off by itself.
The fact remains... he is NOT trained and he is NOT a professional and he should be in JAIL.

[bettytams]

11:40 PM on 06/30/2011

I agree that this principle should not have been doing this, but you cannot make someone do something they wouldn't normally do. He most certainly couldn't convince you to commit suicide. Hypnosis is more of a tool to guide yourself through solving personal issues or strenghten your resolve on something. He should be punished but I do not agree he is linked to their deaths.