I am gobsmacked that Kenney got away with such light punishment. How dare a principle presume to practice a mind-altering psychological technique on children without parental consent, without authorization…hack, how did he think he had any justification for doing it at all? A principal hypnotizing students sounds like the plot of a horror movie or an episode of “Riverdale.” That’s not his job, or any educator’s job. If teachers indoctrinating students is unethical, and it is, a principal hypnotizing students should be a crime, and not just a misdemeanor either. But maybe Kenney hypnotized parents, prosecutors and law enforcement…
This is the first hypnotism ethics tale Ethics Alarms has featured since 2014. Michael Fine, 57, a Sheffield, Ohio attorney, convinced female clients to let him hypnotize them and then had sex with them while instructing them to forget everything but their legal discussions. Fine told the women that his hypnotic machinations were a meditation and relaxation technique that he used to help his clients. Fine was busted when one female client recorded two telephone conversations with Fine after experiencing “strange memories and feelings” following meetings with him. She couldn’t recall substantial portions of the meetings but noticed that her clothes and bra were out of place “and her vagina was wet.”
In the recorded calls, Fine first determined that the woman was alone, then placed her in a trance to “induce multiple orgasms.” He used code words, and told her that she was “being made love to by the world’s greatest lover.” Then Fine told her to forget everything but their case discussion.
After recording two such conversations the police asked the woman to wear a wire. She went to Fine’s office, and when the lawyer hypnotized the woman and began touching her, the police burst in.
Yes, the hypnotist-lawyer was more unethical than the hypnotist high school principal. The latter can claim that unlike Mr. Fine, he was hypnotizing his subjects for their own good, not his sexual gratification. Kenney, however, benefited after being caught because he had done something no one in his position had ever done before, and that’s because no ethical and responsible educator would ever consider it.
