Florida town remembers students who died after being hypnotised by principal

Community of North Port, Florida, gathers to memorialise three students within weeks of each other after going to their high school principal seeking help

The fall ritual of homecoming is a memorable event on any school’s calendar, but it was especially poignant this year in North Port, a small town near the south-west Florida coast.

Old friends and classmates scattered at colleges and universities across the country returned to North Port high school to reminisce in the bleachers as their beloved Bobcats football team took on the rival Bayshore Bruins.

Marcus Freeman, a stand-out athlete once destined to star as the school’s starting quarterback until he was killed in a 2011 car accident at the age of 16, would likely have been a guest of honor. Also remembered this weekend were Wesley McKinley and Brittany Palumbo, two other teenage students who died in a series of tragedies that ripped the community apart.

All three died within weeks of each other – McKinley and Palumbo killed themselves after being hypnotised by George Kenney, the school’s disgraced former principal and self-appointed mind healer.

Kenney was an unlicensed amateur practitioner who ignored repeated orders from his bosses at the Sarasota school board to desist, yet was said to have hypnotised at least 75 students and staff over a five-year period.

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