SHERBROOKE, QUE.—It was an end-of-year school activity featuring a hypnotism show — and it didn’t go quite as planned.

A Quebec high school says the activity went awry when several students suffered difficulties after the show, including one girl who remained stuck in a trance.

A spokesman says the incident occurred late last week at College du Sacre-Coeur in Sherbrooke during a lunchtime end-of-year event.

At least five students appeared to experience trouble after the show by the 20-year-old hypnotist. A report says one student was stuck in a trance for up to five hours.

School administrators had to call in the hypnotist’s mentor, who came to help deal with the problem.

The school says it had no idea that such a show could have those side effects. The school plans to hold a news conference next week to update reporters and families on the incident.

Read more about: