PLACENTIA – A 31-year-old teacher died after she apparently hanged herself and was found by several students Monday morning inside an El Dorado High School classroom.
Jillian Jacobson, a photography teacher from Anaheim, was found by several students after another teacher opened her locked classroom around 8:40 a.m., police said.
Students initially tried to go inside but found the door was locked, “and that’s not normal for that hour of the day,” Placentia police Lt. Eric Point said.
Authorities said the students went to an adjacent classroom and found another teacher, who unlocked the door, and then found Jacobson hanging from the ceiling inside.
The teacher removed Jacobson and set her body on the floor, which is where she was when emergency officials arrived.
“When police and fire arrived, the teacher was in cardiac arrest,” Point said. “After several minutes, she was declared deceased at the scene.”
Jacobson possibly died before paramedics arrived, but every effort was made to try to revive her, Point said.
Investigators suspect Jacobson hanged herself in the classroom. A suicide note was not found, Point said.
Some students left the campus starting around 10 a.m., and the entire student body – about 1,900 students – was released an hour later.
Leo Amaya, 16, of Placentia said he was in Jacobson’s class his freshman year.
Now a junior, Amaya remembered her as an upbeat teacher who loved to have her photography class outdoors.
He, like many others, was stunned by her death.
“If you take into account how everyone reacted by crying and being upset, you’ll see how everyone was completely surprised that it was her,” he said. “She gave no signs of being depressed or sad.”
Holly, a sophomore who did not disclose her last name, said she planned to take Jacobson’s class next year.
“I was in the class next door when I saw her students run out of the room with pale faces,” she said. “Then teachers were running, then firefighters.”
Students initially were asked to stay in their respective classrooms and eventually were gathered in the gym and told by teachers that “she took her life, but didn’t say how,” Holly said.
Freshman students Tessa Hoover and Maddie Bell were in the classroom next door to Jacobson’s when a couple of students stormed into their digital media arts class and ran straight to their teacher.
“We didn’t know what was happening. Our teacher ran out of our class, then into the room next door,” Hoover said. “Then she started screaming.”
“Right away we knew something really horrible had happened,” she added.
Their teacher returned and locked the door, but didn’t explain what happened, they said. A few minutes later all the students in the digital media arts class were ushered into the gym, where they learned about the apparent suicide.
“It was completely shocking,” Hoover said.
Several students on campus said Jacobson’s father committed suicide and that she constantly advised her students against taking their own life.
Grief counselors were made available for students and teachers, and school was expected to resume with a normal schedule Tuesday, according to Candy Plahy, the assistant superintendent of educational services at Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District.
“Often, having students return to their normal daily routines is the best way to help them cope,” she said. “Going back to school will help restore normalcy.”
Plahy said the “handful” of students who found Jacobson were immediately taken to crisis counselors. It’s unclear whether any of those students will return to classes Tuesday.
This is not the first time death has plagued the El Dorado High School campus. Just last year, a student died after being struck by a van, and another teacher died on campus in 2009.
Logan Wells was 16 years old when he was struck and killed by an SUV while riding his skateboard just before 5 a.m. March 23, 2014, near Bastanchury Road and Secretariat Way. He died several hours later at a hospital.
Katie Wells, Logan’s mother, tweeted shortly before 1:30 p.m. Monday: “I’m so sad today. Mrs. J was amazing to our family after Logan passed and one of his fav teachers RIP.”
Coach Terry Conley died Nov. 29, 2009, of a heart attack at age 60 while exercising in the El Dorado High School weight room. He coached football, basketball, baseball, wrestling and soccer at the school for nearly four decades before his death.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the El Dorado High School community today,” Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang said in a statement Monday. “I stand ready to support the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District in any way I can to address the needs of their students.”
Patricia Gibbs, an instructional aide at El Dorado, said she knew Jacobson as a popular, friendly teacher.
“She was always in a great mood, very happy,” she said.
Gibbs said Jacobson not only taught students how to take pictures, but also about the history of photography, including how to work with old-fashioned film cameras.
Jacobson enjoyed covering her classroom walls with her students’ photos. She also posted on her walls notes from students thanking her for teaching them photography, Gibbs said.
“She was loved by everyone,” Gibbs said.
