New crime series features Florida principal who hypnotized students before their deaths
Sundance TV is set to highlight North Port High School in a new four-part true crime docuseries airing June 15.
The series, called “Look Into My Eyes,” will explore the bizarre case of former principal George Kenney and the deaths of three students in 2011 who had been hypnotized by him.
Where to Watch
“Look Into My Eyes” premieres at 10 p.m. ET Thursday, June 15, on Sundance TV, AMC+ and Sundance Now and will run weekly. It will also be available to stream on AMC+ And Sundance Now.
“The series investigates events leading up to these ultimately deaths and the tragic aftermath as victims’ families, eyewitnesses, experts, and people involved attempt to unpack what really happened,” AMC Studios’ website reads.
What Happened
The school district began investigating Kenney, who served as principal at North Port High School in Sarasota from 1999 to 2011, after it was found that he had hypnotized 16-year-old Wesley McKinley the day before he killed himself in April 2011, according to reporting by the Herald-Tribune.
But he wasn’t the only one hypnotized by Kenney.
A 130-page report issued by the school district detailed how he had hypnotized between 70 and 75 students since 2006, despite repeated warnings from school officials.
Brittany Palumbo and Marcus Freeman were among those students. Palumbo was hypnotized once in October 2010 before committing suicide 6 months later.
Freeman was hypnotized five days before he crashed his truck into a tree off Interstate 75 and died. A lawsuit alleged that Freeman hypnotized himself, causing him to go into a trance and crash his car.
Some of these sessions extended beyond what could be considered typical hypnosis and veered more into therapy, with Kenney going as far as to diagnose one student with Tourette’s syndrome and offering hypnosis as a solution despite him not being a licensed psychologist, according to a probable cause affidavit.
In 2015, the Sarasota County School District agreed to pay a $600,000 settlement, with each of the three family’s receiving $200,000.
Following the school investigation, Kenney was put on administrative leave on May 17, 2011 and resigned on June 30 later that year.
He later pleaded no contest to a charge of practicing therapeutic hypnosis without a license and was sentenced to a year of probation.
