Jillian Jacobson Identified as El Dorado High School Teacher Found Hanging: Update

UPDATE, MARCH 2, 4:37 P.M.: The county coroner has identified the deceased teacher as Jillian Jacobson, 31, of Anaheim. Also, the coroner has not confirmed her death in El Dorado High School Room 902 was a suicide: “The investigation is ongoing and an autopsy will take place later this week,” reads the agency's website. However, Placentia Police Lt. Eric Point said that while the investigation is ongoing, “everything points to suicide. There's no indication of foul play.'' A note was not recovered in the room, Point said, but investigators were looking for one elsewhere.

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No information has surfaced to explain why Jacobson would take her own life, Point added. “From what I gather, she was very popular, well-liked by the students and faculty,” he said. “It was definitely a shock to everybody.” He confirmed the door to her classroom was locked this morning, which was unusual for that hour, and that her students went to get another teacher to use a key to get inside, which is when she was found hanging. Jacobson, whose husband was notified of her death, started working for Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District teaching art in the 2008-09 year, according to Kevin Lee, assistant superintendent of personnel. She taught photography to students in all grades at the time of her death, he added. Several students on campus told reporters that Jacobson's father committed suicide and that she constantly advised them against taking their own lives.

ORIGINAL POST, MARCH 2, 11:17 A.M.: This sounds like something from an opening to the old HBO series Six Feet Under: students at El Dorado High School in Placentia arrived to their first-period class this morning to find their teacher had hung herself.

Orange County Fire Authority paramedics got the 9-1-1 call about 8:40 a.m. to treat the unidentified teacher, who students and another instructor managed to get down to the floor, according to OCFA spokesman Capt. Steve Concialdi.

Unfortunately, paramedics could not revive her and pronounced her dead at the scene.

The teacher's students were sent home for the rest of the day, but classes continue elsewhere on campus at 1651 Valencia Ave., where grief counselors have been sent to help console the grieving, according to police.

[UPDATE FROM CITY NEWS SERVICE: The entire student body was brought into the campus gymnasium and told what happened, then were sent home for the rest of the day about 11 a.m., a school administrator said.]

Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!

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