In honor of World Hypnotism Day, Follow Our Courts takes a look at a strange case out of Florida from 2015.
In 2011, a principal hypnotized more than 70 people at his school, and students died. The school district settled three wrongful death lawsuits initiated by the deceased students’ families for $200,000 each, the maximum allowed.
A story about the case by the D’Amore Law Group begins, “Principal George Kenney was not a licensed hypnotherapist.
“He had been warned against hypnotizing students.
“But he hypnotized dozens of high school students—three of whom died within days of hypnosis.”
Kenney defied orders from the school district to cease his amateur hypnosis sessions, because he believed he was helping students with sports and academic anxiety, the Washington Post reported. Some of the surviving students’ families even said the hypnosis was helping.
The attorney for plaintiffs, Damian Mallard, told the Herald-Tribune at the time, “He altered the underdeveloped brains of teenagers, and they all ended up dead because of it.”
Read the Washington Post’s coverage here.
