High School Principal Hypnotized His Students… Then They Die

A Florida high school principal who hypnotized dozens of students to improve their grades, athletic performance and confidence became the center of a disturbing scandal after three teenagers who attended his sessions died within just 50 days.

Dr. George Kenney was a popular principal at North Port High School in Sarasota County, where students and parents initially praised his unusual methods. But when two teenagers died by suicide and a third was killed in a car crash in 2011, investigators uncovered troubling details about the hypnosis sessions he had been conducting without a professional license.

Kenney had reportedly hypnotized as many as 75 people, including students, athletes, teachers and parents. Some students underwent repeated sessions, with one athlete reportedly receiving hypnosis as many as 40 times.

Although Kenney maintained that he was simply trying to help young people succeed, the deaths of Marcus Freeman, 16, Wesley McKinley, 16, and Brittany Palumbo, 17, raised serious questions about his practices and whether school officials had done enough to stop him.

Freeman, a promising high school football player, was the first to die. According to accounts featured in the 2023 documentary series True Crime Story: Look Into My Eyes, Kenney had hypnotized the teenager to improve his performance on the field and taught him self-hypnosis techniques.

On March 15, 2011, Freeman was driving home from a painful dental appointment with his girlfriend when something went terribly wrong. His girlfriend later told investigators that he suddenly developed a strange expression before veering off the highway and crashing into a tree.

Freeman died, while his girlfriend survived with serious injuries. Investigators examined whether self-hypnosis might have played a role, but no definitive connection was established.

Less than a month later, another tragedy rocked the school.

McKinley, a gifted musician preparing for an audition at the prestigious Juilliard School, died by suicide on April 8, 2011. Kenney had hypnotized him just one day earlier.

His mother, Peggie, later described alarming changes in her son’s behavior following hypnosis sessions. She recalled occasions when he appeared confused, struggled to respond to his own name and seemed unusually detached from his surroundings.

Then, on May 4, 2011, Palumbo became the third student to die.

The 17-year-old had turned to Kenney for help with test anxiety while trying to improve her SAT scores and gain admission to the University of Central Florida. Her mother said the teenager had been under considerable emotional pressure but had been looking forward to her future.

Palumbo’s death by suicide devastated her family, who later questioned whether the hypnosis sessions had affected her ability to cope with stress.

As investigators examined the three deaths, troubling allegations about Kenney’s methods began emerging.

Students described feeling disoriented or experiencing memory gaps after hypnosis sessions. Some alleged that Kenney had subjected them to embarrassing situations while they were hypnotized. Others insisted he had helped them overcome anxiety and achieve academic success.

Investigators also discovered that school officials had previously warned Kenney to restrict hypnosis to supervised classroom demonstrations. Despite those warnings, he continued conducting individual sessions with students.

Kenney had completed a short hypnosis training course but was not licensed to provide therapeutic hypnosis. According to legal documents cited by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, he also acknowledged that he had not routinely asked students about their medical or mental health histories before hypnotizing them.

As the scandal intensified, Kenney was placed on administrative leave in May 2011. He later faced two misdemeanor charges related to practicing therapeutic hypnosis without a license.

In 2012, he pleaded no contest and received one year of probation without serving jail time. He also resigned from the school district and surrendered his Florida teaching license in 2013.

But the legal fallout was far from over.

The families of Freeman, McKinley and Palumbo filed wrongful-death lawsuits against the Sarasota County School Board, alleging that officials had failed to protect their children from an unlicensed practice taking place under school supervision.

In October 2015, the district agreed to a $600,000 settlement, with each family receiving $200,000. The settlement resolved the lawsuits without establishing that hypnosis had caused the deaths.

Kenney has consistently denied that his sessions harmed the teenagers. He also maintained that his intentions were to help students, and several former students defended him, crediting his techniques with improving their lives.

The extraordinary case was later revisited in True Crime Story: Look Into My Eyes, a four-part documentary that featured interviews with Kenney, grieving parents and former students.

More than 15 years after the deaths, the case remains a haunting chapter in the history of North Port High School. Although no direct causal link between hypnosis and the three deaths was ever established, the scandal exposed serious concerns about professional boundaries, student safety and the responsibility of school administrators.

For the families who lost their children, the questions surrounding those final months have never completely disappeared.