Schools Ban Hypnotists After Carlsbad Incident

Worried that they could be liable for students falling into trances and being harmed, three North County school districts have banned performances by hypnotists at school assemblies and other functions.

Trustees of the Carlsbad Unified School District late Wednesday adopted a policy prohibiting hypnosis demonstrations in response to an incident in March when 14-year-old Tiffany Smith went into a trance while watching a hypnotist perform at Carlsbad High School.

The girl’s condition was not discovered until after she went to her next class, and her teacher noticed that she was in a dreamlike state and was having trouble sitting up.

School officials called paramedics, who took Smith to a local hospital, where she was brought out of the apparent hypnotic trance.

On Tuesday, the Oceanside Union High School District took similar action in response to the same incident. And tonight, trustees of the Vista Unified School District will be told that principals of the district’s two high schools have decided that, in the wake of Carlsbad’s experience, they will not allow their schools to sponsor hypnotism shows.

In a report to trustees, Vista Supt. Rene Townsend said that for a number of years both schools have contracted with a local hypnotist to perform shows in which a number of students were hypnotized. Various school organizations also used the shows for fund-raisers, she added, meaning that there will be a financial impact to the ban.

“Groups which had been sponsoring the hypnotism shows,” Townsend said, “will now have to find another way to raise approximately $1,200.”

All three school boards have heard presentations from an Alpine couple, Phil and Mary Potter, who claim hypnotism shows like the one at Carlsbad can have adverse effects not only on students who volunteer to participate, but also those in the audience.

Phil Potter said he has first-hand knowledge of such “casualties” because he was a hypnotist who for 10 years performed at high schools. He gave up what he said was the lucrative career a decade ago and has been researching what he and his wife consider to be the underreported number of people who have suffered mild to severe reactions from such shows.

The Potters have been lobbying districts throughout the county to ban hypnosis demonstrations. Last year, Grossmont Union High School in La Mesa responded passing a ban. However, the San Diego Unified School District hasn’t responded to their pleas.

“There’s no way to predict what someone is going to do when they are in a trance,” Mary Potter said.

Coincidentally, Phil Potter’s daughter, Angela, 16, who lives in the Carlsbad district, also attended one of the two March 4 hypnotism shows at the high school.

The next day Angela began having laughing fits, experienced cramps accompanied with headaches and had strange thoughts, said Mary Potter, Angela’s stepmother. For the next month, Potter said, the girl had to be treated for “nervous stress.”

Angela had not wanted to go to the assembly, Mary Potter said, but her teacher told her attendance was required.

Margaret Stanchi, Carlsbad High assistant principal, said hypnotism shows have been performed for years at school assemblies, and no previous incidents of adverse side effects have been reported. The shows, she said, “are immensely popular.”

But, with liability concerns, Carlsbad trustees voted 4-0 for a policy statement putting the ban into effect.

“Although the use of hypnotism by medical professionals may have some medical and therapeutic value,” the policy states, “it is the opinion of the Board of Trustees that hypnotism, when used as entertainment, may be harmful to the health and welfare of students and shall not be allowed.”

James Smith, director of the Hypnosis Institute of San Diego, said the school districts are overreacting.

“This is ridiculous,” said Smith, who puts on shows at schools and other functions and teaches others to do the same. “The kids love it, and it’s good, clean fun.”

Research shows that a person cannot be hypnotized unless he wants to be, Smith said. At some level, Tiffany Smith must have wanted to fall into the trance, he said.

Smith did concede that occasionally an observer at a hypnosis show can fall into a hypnotic state, but bringing the person out of the dreamlike condition is as simple as telling the person that he will awaken, feeling fine, at the count of five.