‘True Crime Story: Look Into My Eyes’ – ‘Step One: Absorb Attention’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Still from ‘True Crime Story: Look Into My Eyes’ – ‘Step One: Absorb Attention’ Courtesy of SundanceTV/AMC Networks.

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the Premiere of ‘True Crime Story: Look Into My Eyes’. This article also contains discussions about suicide, which may be triggering to some individuals.
​
It is definitely safe to say that when it comes to certain institutions in our world, we trust the people that make them up implicitly, and rightfully so. For these are the folks that are tasked with difficult jobs, the kind that require a special touch and a special temperament and if someone has come into that field, we really don’t question them. We think they are ready to take on the challenge and are trained and set up for success because of what the institution stands for. So, we give them our faith and more often than not, that pays off. For the people that protect our streets or are tasked with our faith, and the care and education of our children… do their best to uphold their duties and our trust and make those institutions proud.
​
Granted, there are outliers, bad teachers, cops that aren’t qualified and such, but those are usually blips that are forgotten. But in the past few years, our faith in our institutions have been rocked to their core. Since we’ve seen peace officers commit crimes on livestreams, learned that there are men of the cloth that have committed some terrible acts throughout the years and even the educators we trust implicitly have betrayed our trust in them, and well… that has left us beside ourselves and confused. Since we don’t understand how this all could have happened or what needs to be done to fix it. But in order to fix the problem, we first need to understand the root cause of the problem, and that requires… looking at the big picture and understanding all sides of the matter at hand and that is why shows like True Crime Story on Sundance TV are critical to such matters, since this is a show that does indeed examine every aspect of atrocities that happen in our world.

In fact, for its new season, Look Into My Eyes, the show opted to focus upon a strange series of events that took place a little over a decade ago in the city of North Port, Florida, at its high school no less. For over the course of a few months several students died without warning. One of them, passed away in a tragic accident, while others… simply took their own lives. Which rocked this community to its core and left them wondering how this could have happened when there was no rhyme or reason to it. Until there was. For ‘Step One: Absorb Attention’ informed us that there was a common denominator amongst the teenagers that died. In that, they had unique contact with their principal, a Dr. George Kenney. Who used hypnosis to help them all in academics or athletics. Making this a documentary about the unique failure of an individual in an institution and well… that made for a fascinating opening chapter regarding this matter.

One that truly did opt to take us back to the beginning to understand what caused this, and yes, part of it was in fact, Dr. Kenney. Who found himself obsessed with hypnosis at that point in his career and believed it would offer great benefits to others. So, he practiced it at school and in his personal life with conviction and confidence. The kind that allowed for people to trust him and not question his methods, and there were students that believed he was also just trying to do right in this world and heal people as best he could. But the death of those teens, changed everything, and divided this town and well… it became evident here that the root cause period of this mess, was giving leeway to a man and a method of healing that wasn’t certified for anyone to use, and it might have been abused and might have influenced these teenagers in the wrong manner, leading to their death, regardless of good intentions.

All of which brought forth an engaging watch for certain, one that put the viewer on the edge of their seat with curiosity and horror. Because how on earth would a man that dedicated his life to educating youth be okay with using something so experimental? Something that has never been certified as the right way to provide care to anyone really? But those are questions for later on down the line. Since this episode… was to establish that this was a crime involving a failure in the institution once again, one that tore a community apart and that the root cause in its most literal sense, was poor decision making and a lack of accountability through trust. But of course, we really do need more to understand the whole picture and how to prevent this happening again, and it won’t be long before we receive that grander view. For the next episode of this show promises to explore the why and our other questions, by having Dr. Kenney speak, and it will be fascinating and unsettling to hear what he has to say, as this exploration into one incredible failure of trust, continues along. Until next time.    

---