Hypnotist principal under investigation
May 21, 2011 4:38 AM Subscribe
A Florida school principal, who is also a hypnotist, is under investigation after a student committed suicide only a day after being hypnotized. The students love him, are petitioning to get him back, , and are considering not walking across the stage at graduation until they do.
This post was deleted for the following reason: You really, really need to not link to a site you work for on the front page. We ban folks for that sort of thing. -- cortex
C'mon, clearly the students and parents are also hypnotised.
They can't walk across the stage because he told them they had no legs while they were under.
posted by pulposus at 4:52 AM on May 21, 2011 [2 favorites]
They can't walk across the stage because he told them they had no legs while they were under.
posted by pulposus at 4:52 AM on May 21, 2011 [2 favorites]
George Kenny is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:57 AM on May 21, 2011 [11 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:57 AM on May 21, 2011 [11 favorites]
Just as you're not going to do anything you don't want to do under hypnosis, it's also not going to prevent you from doing anything you really want to do. It can be tremendously relaxing, which can help with stress, but this is not mesmerism.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:05 AM on May 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:05 AM on May 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
I love him. He's much better than Cats. I want to see him again and again.
posted by persona at 5:09 AM on May 21, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by persona at 5:09 AM on May 21, 2011 [3 favorites]
It's a good thing that hypnosis, as commonly understood, isn't real; otherwise this guy would be in a heap of trouble.
posted by Avenger at 5:10 AM on May 21, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Avenger at 5:10 AM on May 21, 2011 [2 favorites]
We had a hypnotist perform for our school on a yearly basis. When I was in 10th grade one of the student that was brought up on stage was Chad. This kid was a total type A dick from a wealthy parents who were total elitist dicks themselves. Really high strung kid with what I always assumed to be a misserable home life.
Anywho, he and a number of other kids get put under and get told to do funny schtuff. Half way through the act, Chad starts to have breathing problems. The hypnotist calms him down. A few minutes later he starts having breathing problems again and then starts choking. The hypnotist stops the show and pulls all the kids out of hypnosis.
Everyone is freaked out and the teachers started clearing out the auditorium when Chad seemed to lapse back into hypnosis and start choking again. By this time the hypnotist was sweating bullets. As the auditorium cleared a number of us stayed around to see how everything ended.
The hypnotist worked on Chad for a number of minutes more. At one point Chad started yelling at the hypnotist 'You fucking quack!' at which point the lingering students were told to leave the auditorium.
I'm not saying that in the posted story, the hypnotist was directly responsible for the kid's suicide. But you'd have a hard time convincing me otherwise that for particular people, in particular life situations, hypnosis may not be the safest experience to undergo.
posted by En0rm0 at 5:13 AM on May 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
Anywho, he and a number of other kids get put under and get told to do funny schtuff. Half way through the act, Chad starts to have breathing problems. The hypnotist calms him down. A few minutes later he starts having breathing problems again and then starts choking. The hypnotist stops the show and pulls all the kids out of hypnosis.
Everyone is freaked out and the teachers started clearing out the auditorium when Chad seemed to lapse back into hypnosis and start choking again. By this time the hypnotist was sweating bullets. As the auditorium cleared a number of us stayed around to see how everything ended.
The hypnotist worked on Chad for a number of minutes more. At one point Chad started yelling at the hypnotist 'You fucking quack!' at which point the lingering students were told to leave the auditorium.
I'm not saying that in the posted story, the hypnotist was directly responsible for the kid's suicide. But you'd have a hard time convincing me otherwise that for particular people, in particular life situations, hypnosis may not be the safest experience to undergo.
posted by En0rm0 at 5:13 AM on May 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
Hypnotism is fine within a therapist-therapee relationship, whether in a school or other setting. What makes me feel weird about this case is that I don't think a principal or other overt authority/disciplinary figure is the right person to have a therapeutic relationship with students in her/his charge because of the power dynamic. As an educator, I'm happy to listen if students want to tell me about issues they're having and help them get to appropriate help, but as the person who gives the grades, I shouldn't be the one providing treatment, even if I were also the world's most qualified clinical psychologist.
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:16 AM on May 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:16 AM on May 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
Avenger: "It's a good thing that hypnosis, as commonly understood, isn't real; otherwise this guy would be in a heap of trouble"
I was just about to ask - how real is hypnosis, anyway? Isn't this tantamount to suspending him because he and the student used a ouija board the day before or something?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 5:17 AM on May 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
I was just about to ask - how real is hypnosis, anyway? Isn't this tantamount to suspending him because he and the student used a ouija board the day before or something?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 5:17 AM on May 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
I'm surprised i'm the first so far to say this, but "Look into my eyes, not around the eyes."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H70tFbCAKNo
posted by usagizero at 5:25 AM on May 21, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H70tFbCAKNo
posted by usagizero at 5:25 AM on May 21, 2011
Not making fun of the suicide, but the hypnotism scapegoating, just to be clear.
posted by usagizero at 5:27 AM on May 21, 2011
posted by usagizero at 5:27 AM on May 21, 2011
Do we have a Florida tag?
posted by Bathtub Bobsled at 5:32 AM on May 21, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Bathtub Bobsled at 5:32 AM on May 21, 2011 [2 favorites]
Do we have a Florida tag?
This isn't Fark.
posted by Dr. Eigenvariable at 5:39 AM on May 21, 2011 [4 favorites]
This isn't Fark.
posted by Dr. Eigenvariable at 5:39 AM on May 21, 2011 [4 favorites]
En0rm0 : The hypnotist worked on Chad for a number of minutes more. At one point Chad started yelling at the hypnotist 'You fucking quack!' at which point the lingering students were told to leave the auditorium.
Attention whore wants attention. Film at 11.
Avenger has the right idea - Hypnotism just doesn't work that way. It doesn't make healthy people commit suicide, it doesn't make people have panic attacks (though getting up on stage before a thousand of one's peer can), it doesn't make all your addictions vanish overnight.
FelliniBlank : Hypnotism is fine within a therapist-therapee relationship
No, not at all fine. If your therapist offers to teach you a few relaxation techniques, cool. If your therapist offers to "hypnotize" you, calmly stand up, walk out, and never go back.
Then again, some people swear by psychics, chiropractors, and the healing power of Tibetan Yeti feces, so feel free to keep paying for placebos if you prefer.
posted by pla at 5:41 AM on May 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
Attention whore wants attention. Film at 11.
Avenger has the right idea - Hypnotism just doesn't work that way. It doesn't make healthy people commit suicide, it doesn't make people have panic attacks (though getting up on stage before a thousand of one's peer can), it doesn't make all your addictions vanish overnight.
FelliniBlank : Hypnotism is fine within a therapist-therapee relationship
No, not at all fine. If your therapist offers to teach you a few relaxation techniques, cool. If your therapist offers to "hypnotize" you, calmly stand up, walk out, and never go back.
Then again, some people swear by psychics, chiropractors, and the healing power of Tibetan Yeti feces, so feel free to keep paying for placebos if you prefer.
posted by pla at 5:41 AM on May 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
The thing that really bugs me about this is that apparently the principal was told to knock it off two years ago by school officials, but he kept doing it anyway.
This is all happening in my neck of the woods, by the way. I have several friends with kids at North Port High, and their support for the principal, even in light of the reports that he was ordered by his superiors to stop this stuff (however harmless it may be), is kind of baffling to me. Another kid (a girl) committed suicide at the same school a couple of weeks ago. Unrelatedly, a very popular kid was killed earlier this year in a car crash, and a teacher died too, so all these deaths have had a devastating effect on the students. If I was the parent and there was any possibility that the kid in this story may have inadvertently been affected by this guy's techniques, I'd be beyond outraged.
posted by Gator at 5:44 AM on May 21, 2011
This is all happening in my neck of the woods, by the way. I have several friends with kids at North Port High, and their support for the principal, even in light of the reports that he was ordered by his superiors to stop this stuff (however harmless it may be), is kind of baffling to me. Another kid (a girl) committed suicide at the same school a couple of weeks ago. Unrelatedly, a very popular kid was killed earlier this year in a car crash, and a teacher died too, so all these deaths have had a devastating effect on the students. If I was the parent and there was any possibility that the kid in this story may have inadvertently been affected by this guy's techniques, I'd be beyond outraged.
posted by Gator at 5:44 AM on May 21, 2011
There seems to be really strong support among the parents and students. The students held a protest in his support one morning which ended with 4 students suspended. Take that, civil disobedience!
posted by indubitable at 5:51 AM on May 21, 2011
posted by indubitable at 5:51 AM on May 21, 2011
This hypnosis thing seems weird, suicide or not, and I don't think he should be doing it at all.
posted by empath at 6:22 AM on May 21, 2011
posted by empath at 6:22 AM on May 21, 2011
A Florida school principal, who is also a hypnotist, is under investigation
What are they investigating? The scientific underpinnings of alleged hypnosis?
posted by dixiecupdrinking at 6:30 AM on May 21, 2011
What are they investigating? The scientific underpinnings of alleged hypnosis?
posted by dixiecupdrinking at 6:30 AM on May 21, 2011
When I was a teenager I used to hypnotize friends during sleepovers for a laugh. I got the technique from a magazine article from the 1970s called "How to Become a Hypnotist" by a Ron De Stefano. I can't find it online now, but it was pretty simple.
Talk with the most soothing, calm voice you can muster, repeating variations on "You are becoming more and more relaxed. You can feel the tension flowing out through the bottoms of your feet. Just concentrate on my voice. The more you concentrate the more relaxed you are." Usually took no more than 5 minutes of that to get them "under".
Mostly all I ever did was simple funny stuff like "When you hear the word 'pocketchange' you will have a strong urge to go look in the street for coins" or "For 20 minutes after I bring you out, you will have a strong desire to stand near Marvin." I remember that combo because of an exchange with the subject after the hypnosis. Being a group of teenage boys, the others were ribbing the subject then someone said the code word 'pocketchange'. The subject sneered at us and said, completely seriously, "Fuck ya'll. Come on, Marvin. Let's go look for some coins."
I would do other stuff like telling the subject to remember a long string of numbers and they would usually nail it. So I dunno. Seemed pretty real to me at the time. It never seemed to me like the subjects were "faking" it. Well, until the last guy.
I stopped doing it when this one odd guy got me to hypnotize him and it seemed like he was fucking with me the whole time and I was just really uncomfortable about what was actually going on. I couldn't tell if he was hypnotized or not. It was kinda like, ok, here's this open door to a very weird place, and I decided to close the door and walk away and never come back.
It'd be interesting to see if hypnosis "works" on people from populations without the cultural expectations of hypnosis.
posted by BeerFilter at 6:49 AM on May 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
Talk with the most soothing, calm voice you can muster, repeating variations on "You are becoming more and more relaxed. You can feel the tension flowing out through the bottoms of your feet. Just concentrate on my voice. The more you concentrate the more relaxed you are." Usually took no more than 5 minutes of that to get them "under".
Mostly all I ever did was simple funny stuff like "When you hear the word 'pocketchange' you will have a strong urge to go look in the street for coins" or "For 20 minutes after I bring you out, you will have a strong desire to stand near Marvin." I remember that combo because of an exchange with the subject after the hypnosis. Being a group of teenage boys, the others were ribbing the subject then someone said the code word 'pocketchange'. The subject sneered at us and said, completely seriously, "Fuck ya'll. Come on, Marvin. Let's go look for some coins."
I would do other stuff like telling the subject to remember a long string of numbers and they would usually nail it. So I dunno. Seemed pretty real to me at the time. It never seemed to me like the subjects were "faking" it. Well, until the last guy.
I stopped doing it when this one odd guy got me to hypnotize him and it seemed like he was fucking with me the whole time and I was just really uncomfortable about what was actually going on. I couldn't tell if he was hypnotized or not. It was kinda like, ok, here's this open door to a very weird place, and I decided to close the door and walk away and never come back.
It'd be interesting to see if hypnosis "works" on people from populations without the cultural expectations of hypnosis.
posted by BeerFilter at 6:49 AM on May 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
"The students held a protest in his support one morning which ended with 4 students suspended. Take that, civil disobedience!"
Actually, the concerning part for me is that they were "thrown off campus with no ride home."
Around here we typically let students protest for a while then "order" them back to class, generally after the media's gotten pictures and they've given interviews and all. If we lose a whole day of instruction to student protest, we have to make it up, and that's expensive; and students can be suspending for missing class without an excused absence, which a protest technically is. (And I mean, civil disobedience does come with consequences; that's part of the point. Although a five-day suspension for a protest is absurd -- what do they do for fights?) Our students typically are pretty understanding of the policy and we haven't really had any problems. The principals usually tell them, "We're going to let this protest go on until X time, and then we're going to need you to go into class or we'll start counting unexcused absences," so they have some warning of the time frame. We also always make sure to acknowledge their protest and congratulate them on it at the next school board meeting, even though they're usually protesting us, since we're proud of them for exercising their free speech and free assembly rights in a peaceful way to engage with important issues about their educations.
But, here at least, suspended students MUST have parents contacted and we ONLY release them into the custody of parents/guardians/police unless they're over 18 or emancipated. It's like lawsuit city otherwise. If no parents can be reached, you're pretty much stuck having them sit there until the normal end of the school day and then trying to serve process about the suspension via -- seriously -- a process server. It's Srs Bizness.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:58 AM on May 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
Actually, the concerning part for me is that they were "thrown off campus with no ride home."
Around here we typically let students protest for a while then "order" them back to class, generally after the media's gotten pictures and they've given interviews and all. If we lose a whole day of instruction to student protest, we have to make it up, and that's expensive; and students can be suspending for missing class without an excused absence, which a protest technically is. (And I mean, civil disobedience does come with consequences; that's part of the point. Although a five-day suspension for a protest is absurd -- what do they do for fights?) Our students typically are pretty understanding of the policy and we haven't really had any problems. The principals usually tell them, "We're going to let this protest go on until X time, and then we're going to need you to go into class or we'll start counting unexcused absences," so they have some warning of the time frame. We also always make sure to acknowledge their protest and congratulate them on it at the next school board meeting, even though they're usually protesting us, since we're proud of them for exercising their free speech and free assembly rights in a peaceful way to engage with important issues about their educations.
But, here at least, suspended students MUST have parents contacted and we ONLY release them into the custody of parents/guardians/police unless they're over 18 or emancipated. It's like lawsuit city otherwise. If no parents can be reached, you're pretty much stuck having them sit there until the normal end of the school day and then trying to serve process about the suspension via -- seriously -- a process server. It's Srs Bizness.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:58 AM on May 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
« Older Learn about a fantastic rock weathering pattern | 'I'm a human being, God damn it! My life has value... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
...And...
"Sarasota School superintendent Lori White says Kenney's techniques ''are outside the scope of normally accepted student counseling practices and is cause for serious concern.'' "
We've got a scapegoat, boys! No cause for concern at all!
"Kenney reportedly had permission from Wesley's parents to use hypnosis on their son."
End of story - in loco parentis doesn't trump actual parenthood.
posted by pla at 4:50 AM on May 21, 2011