In 2011, the former principal, George Kenney, hypnotized Wesley McKinley, 16, Marcus Freeman, 16, and Brittany Palumbo, 17. McKinley and Palumbo committed suicide, and Freeman died in a car accident after hypnotizing himself.
The deaths were not linked directly to Kenny’s hypnosis, but all three died after they had been hypnotized. Kenny is now comfortably retired, but he resigned from the high school in 2012 and served one year of probation after pleading no contest to the unlawful practice of hypnosis.