--- description: A Florida school board will pay $200,000 apiece to the families of three students who died after they were hypnotized by a school principal. title: Schools Settle With Parents of Teens Who Died After Hypnosis image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Florida Schools Settle With Parents of Three Teens Who Died After Hypnosis by Principal by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 8, 2015 3:56 AM CUT by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 8, 2015 3:56 AM CUT A Florida school board will pay $200,000 apiece to the families of three students who died after they were hypnotized by former North Port High School Principal George Kenney, according to court documents obtained by NBC News. The 14-page agreement, approved Tuesday night by the Sarasota County School Board, settles a lawsuit filed by the families of Brittany Palumbo, 17, and Wesley McKinley, 16, who committed suicide in 2011, and Marcus Freeman, 16, who died in a car crash the same year. Kenney was placed on administrative leave after he admitted that he’d hypnotized Wesley on the day he… [_Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News_](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-schools-settle-parents-three-teens-who-died-after-hypnosis-n440556?cid=par-time-article%5F20151008 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4065732/florida-school-settlement-hypnosis-principal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4065732/florida-school-settlement-hypnosis-principal/"},"headline":"Florida Schools Settle With Parents of Three Teens Who Died After Hypnosis by Principal","datePublished":"2015-10-08T03:56:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:36:47.428Z","description":"It emerged that George Kenney had hypnotized more than 70 students, faculty and staff over five years","url":"https://time.com/4065732/florida-school-settlement-hypnosis-principal/","keywords":["Suicide","Crime","School","Florida","killed","died"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4065732/florida-school-settlement-hypnosis-principal/","name":"Florida Schools Settle With Parents of Three Teens Who Died After Hypnosis by Principal"}}]}] ```