The families of three American high school students who died after being hypnotized by their school principal will each receive more than $200,000 in compensation.
The Herald Tribune reports on the bizarre case, in which the former principal of the North Port High School in Florida hypnotized 75 students and staff at the school.
The board has accepted that some students began behaving extremely strangely after being hypnotized by Principal George Kenney, who was forced to retire and now runs a bed-and-breakfast in North Carolina.
One student, Wesley McKinley, 16, committed suicide days after being hypnotized, as did her classmate, Marcus Freeman.
A third student died in a fatal car accident after ‘self-hypnotizing’ himself before driving home.
The principal admitted to both hypnotizing students to teach them better concentration and relaxation; and to showing students how to ‘self-hypnotize.’
The report quotes School Board Attorney Art Hardy saying the board was “just happy to put this behind them.”
It also quotes Damian Mallard, an attorney representing the families, saying the parents did not sue for money “but to hold the school district accountable and to ensure something similar does not happen again.
“It’s something they will never get over. It’s probably the worst loss that can happen to a parent is to lose a child,” Mallard said, adding: “He altered the underdeveloped brains of teenagers, and they all ended up dead because of it.”
The $US 200,000 awarded to each family is the maximum any Florida government agency can pay without getting special approval from the governor.
The settlement comes ahead of a civil case that was due to go to trial on 12 October.
