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. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Students and teachers in tears 
 
 
 
 
 
 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. 
 
 
 
 
 
 History of death at El Dorado High 
 
 
 
 
 
 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.” 
 
 
 
 
 
 Colleagues remember 
 
 
 
 
 
 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. ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video 
 
 A 31-year-old female teacher was declared dead after students found her hanging inside a high school classroom in Placentia, authorities said Monday. 
 
 Jillian Rose Jacobson, 31, of Anaheim, died at El Dorado High School, at 1651 Valencia Ave. (map) in the Orange County city of Placentia. 
 
 Police and firefighters were called the campus at 8:40 a.m., and when they arrived, the female adult teacher was found in full cardiac arrest, Placentia Police Department Lt. Eric Point said. 
 
 CPR was performed but was unsuccessful and the teacher was declared dead at the scene. There was no indication of foul play, according to police. 
 
 Students found the woman hanging inside the classroom, and school staff brought her down to the ground, Point said. 
 
 Jacobson was a photography teacher who had been at the school about 10 years, Point said. Her husband had been notified of her death, he said. 
 
 The door was locked when students arrived for their first-period class, and after another teacher came to let them in, the teens discovered their teacher, the lieutenant said. 
 
 An initial investigation indicated the teacher had hanged herself, according to Point. No note was left and detectives were not sure why she had committed suicide. 
 
 Jacobson was a popular teacher who had close friends among the faculty, Point said. 
 
 Some students on campus were distraught. 
 
 “We lost a very important faculty member,” one student told KTLA. “She was the greatest teacher that was here. She was an amazing teacher. It was a terrible thing that happened today.” 
 
 The student said Jacobson had always said suicide was not an answer. Others students said they believed the teacher had been battling personal issues. 
 
 "She was also happy and full of life during class," said student Maya Shepherd. 
 
 An autopsy was expected to take place later in the week, according to a press release on the Orange County coroner's website. She was found in Room 902, the coroner's post stated. 
 
 The post originally stated she died at 12:45 a.m., but it was later changed to 7 a.m. The original figure may have been a "placeholder time," Supervising Deputy Coroner Allison O’Neal said. Investigators estimate that Jacobson died about 7 a.m. based on an initial investigation, O'Neal said Monday afternoon. 
 
 There was an “emergency medical situation” involving a teacher at the school, Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District Assistant Superintendent Kevin Lee said earlier Monday. Students were safe and officials were working to release students early, Lee said. 
 
 Counselors were at the school and met with the students who found Jacobson, police said. Classes were expected to resume Tuesday. 
 
 A candlelight vigil was planned for 7 p.m. Monday at the school, according to a Facebook event post. 
 
 Jacobson's death marked the second time in a year that the news spotlight focused on the Placentia campus amid a tragedy. Last March, students and staff grieved for a 16-old-student named Logan Wells, who was fatally struck by an SUV while riding his skateboard. 
 
 KTLA's Jennifer Thang and Mark Mester contributed to this article. 
 
 Students leaving El Dorado High School early after teacher reportedly found hanging in classroom. @KTLA http://t.co/ruuujZU3xm— 
 
 mark mester (@mester_mark) March 02, 2015 
 
 Send up prayers for El Dorado high school, and for their beloved teacher 💛 — ashley gahagan (@agahagan7) March 2, 2015 
 
 More videos: ||||| A student locked outside a classroom during the Parkland shooting has taken to Twitter, calling his teacher a coward for not opening the door. 
 
 But the teacher, stunned by the public flogging on social media, says he was following protocol and did nothing wrong. He was surprised to learn weeks later that the student and his father were upset. 
 
 Their story provides a window into the confusion and chaos that enveloped Marjory Stoneman Douglas High that day, and the lingering anger some students have toward people they expected to protect them at all costs. 
 
 Josh Gallagher says he and more than a dozen classmates were stuck in a hallway when Nikolas Cruz went on a shooting rampage at the Parkland school on Feb. 14, killing 14 students and three faculty. 
 
 Josh, a junior from Coral Springs, was so mad that he transferred out of his teacher’s classroom and unleashed his fury on Twitter. 
 
 In a post on Feb. 28, Josh accused his teacher of leaving “75% of his students out in the hallway to be slaughtered.” 
 
 Teacher Jim Gard, of Pompano Beach, says 13 students had lagged behind during a fire drill and wound up locked outside his classroom, but all found refuge elsewhere and survived the shooting. 
 
 “I looked back down the hall and no one was around — no one,” said Gard. “You have to close the door. That’s protocol. We have no choice.” 
 
 It’s established policy for teachers to keep the door locked during shootings, according to teachers well-versed on procedure. 
 
 Josh told the South Florida Sun Sentinel he and his parents did not want to be interviewed. His father, a high-ranking officer at the Coral Springs Police Department, responded to the shooting that day. 
 
 “I’m not going to sensationalize this even like my teacher did,” Josh said in a Twitter message to the newspaper, referring to interviews Gard granted reporters after the shooting. “I want change to happen when it comes to protocol and the way this situation is handled. No child can feel the way I did.” 
 
 In his Twitter post, Josh said he and his fellow students found safe haven in another classroom “when a teacher I never seen before” let them in. 
 
 Gard says he was following protocol, which requires teachers to keep their doors locked during an active shooter drill or a true emergency. The veteran math teacher says his classroom is next to the freshmen building where Cruz roamed three floors, taking aim at his former classmates. 
 
 Gard said only six students followed him back into the room that day when a fire drill turned into a Code Red emergency that many assumed was just a drill. 
 
 “I looked back down the hall and no one was around — no one,” he said. “You have to close the door. That’s protocol. We have no choice.” 
 
 He and his students were huddled in the dark by his desk when they heard a loud bang, bang on the door. 
 
 “I told the kids we can’t let anyone in,” he said. “We had no idea if it was a drill or not. By the time I walked over to the door, the banging had stopped. I didn’t hear any yelling. If there were 13 kids outside the door screaming and banging I would have heard them.” 
 
 Ten minutes later, Gard says he knew it was no drill. 
 
 “We hear the choppers overhead,” Gard said. “We get online and see all the news reports.” 
 
 That’s when they started texting the missing students to make sure they were safe, Gard said. And they were. 
 
 “Fast forward to Sunday, when the parents came back for an open house,” Gard said. “All of a sudden this kid comes over and starts screaming at me. Then his father started screaming at me. This is insane.” 
 
 sbryan@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4554 or visit our ‘Sun Sentinel: Hollywood’ page at SunSentinel.com/facebookhollywood 
 
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– The door was locked around 8:40am yesterday when a few students arrived at Jillian Jacobson's photography classroom at El Dorado High School in Placentia, Calif. "That's not normal for that hour of the day," a police lieutenant explains to the Orange County Register. The students found another teacher to open the door and were met with a horrific scene: Jacobson, 31, hanged from the ceiling. A student in the other teacher's class says they could hear "screaming, crying," and their teacher yelling, "Oh my God, oh my God!" after the door was opened. That teacher and Jacobson's students lowered Jacobson to the floor, and paramedics tried to revive her, but she was pronounced dead at the scene, the Los Angeles Times reports. Jacobson was a popular teacher—and her own father had committed suicide, according to several students who say it was not uncommon for Jacobson to speak out against such an action, advising students that "suicide was not the answer," as KTLA puts it. No suicide note was found, but the preliminary investigation indicates she did take her own life, the lieutenant says. "She gave no signs of being depressed or sad," says one of her former students. Another student at the school, one of many who mourned Jacobson on Twitter, said she remembered the teacher often "really brightened up everyone's day." But others say she was struggling with "personal issues." The students who found Jacobson were taken to crisis counselors immediately, and grief counselors were made available at the school.