Woman Commits Suicide in Front of Fifth-Grade Class

A 44-year-old woman, described by her son as “having a very hard time lately, both physically and emotionally,” walked into an elementary school classroom near Tustin Monday and fatally shot herself in the presence of 27 fifth-graders.

Pupils in Room 5 at Panorama Elementary School in Cowan Heights said that they and their teacher tried to dissuade the woman from killing herself. But the woman, armed with two semiautomatic pistols, said, “I’m sorry I have to do it this way,” then fired a bullet into her head and collapsed, according to a statement issued by the school district.

No Apparent Connection

The woman, identified as Mary Jo Jansen, who lived within a quarter-mile of the school, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital at 12:17 p.m., about an hour after the shooting.

School officials said it did not appear that Jansen had any connection with the school. She was not a parent of any of the school’s 280 students, they said.

“She’s never been to that school. None of us have ever been to that school, as far as I know,” said Jansen’s 22-year-old son, Jeff Wallert, at the family’s hilltop home in Tustin.

“I don’t know why she did it. The only thing I can think of is she felt she had been cheated so bad and she doesn’t want this to happen to anyone else.”

Wallert said his mother was an employee of Beverly Hills Savings & Loan in Mission Viejo when in February, 1986, she fell at her office and severely injured her back. He said she has been in a battle with her employer’s insurance company ever since. Officials at the firm could not be reached.

“She’s been having a very hard time lately, both physically and emotionally. This all goes back to when the injury started. She has just been sick, very sick, for the past year,” Wallert said.

When she awoke Monday morning, “she was in horrible physical condition. Her body had broken out in a rash. . . . I told her to go see a doctor, and she said she probably would,” Wallert said.

Jansen apparently walked past the school library and some offices before coming to the classroom she entered. One student in another classroom reported seeing her pass by. Tony La Venia, 11, said the woman looked through the window in his classroom door but went on her way.

‘Soft Boom’ Heard

It was shortly afterwards, Tony said, when he heard a “soft boom” from next door and “everybody started yelling and screaming.”

The noise came from Room 5, where teacher Paddy Kakihara had 27 fifth-graders under her care and was expecting more for a science lesson.

According to the school district’s account, Jansen entered through the rear classroom door behind the students.

“The teacher was at the file cabinet and we were sitting there waiting for book sheets (lessons) when we saw the lady walk in,” said Jeffrey Waring, 11. “She had one big gun and one little gun, but we all thought the lady was kidding.”

He said adults occasionally visit classrooms to give safety demonstrations, “and we all thought she was a safety woman.”

“I thought it was a joke at first, and so did my teacher. . . ,” said Carol Ridder, 10. “She said, ‘Oh, a stickup,’ because she thought it was a joke.”

But Shannon Goodwin, 11, said she overheard the intruder say, “This is for real.”

Jeffrey said the woman “started talking about taking pills, and she said she was going to end it all.”

Melissa Poncedelon, 11, said the woman ordered the teacher “to write a note to some doctors. . . . She kept saying, ‘I have nothing else to live for.’ We said, ‘No, no, no. Please don’t, please don’t do that.’ The teacher was saying, ‘Can’t the kids leave? Can’t they go outside?’ ”

Melissa recalled that the woman “said she was in a mental hospital. She was telling us about her life. She said doctors tied her up and gave her acid pills, so she had to get out.”

Melissa said that at one point Jansen pointed one of the guns at a boy in the classroom and that he “got scared and started to cry.”

Other students reported that a group of fifth-graders due to join the class for the science lesson were outside the door but that the woman was leaning against the doorway, blocking their way. Apparently one or more of them went to the principal’s office to report that something odd was happening in Room 5.

According to the school district’s account, Jansen put one handgun to her head and pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired. Kakihara then told her students to put their heads down on their desks, not wanting them to see what was about to happen.

Jansen aimed the gun at a wall, fired a shot, then put it to her head again and fired the fatal shot, according to the school district’s account.

Jeffrey said that as soon as he heard the shot, he looked up. “All the girls were crying, and everybody went crazy,” he said, shaking his head. “I had to walk by her.”

Students said the principal, Kathy Kessler, arrived just after the second shot was fired. Both she and Kakihara tried to shield the children from the sight of Jansen’s body as they were sent from the room to the nearby school library.

In all, the episode lasted three to five minutes, students estimated.

Jansen was taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, where she was pronounced dead.

Psychologists from the school district and Western Medical Center were rushed to the school immediately to begin counseling students.

“Very few (pupils) actually saw anything,” said Robert Joy, a high school principal in the district, a former principal of Panorama school who also is a psychologist.

“Some of the children in some of the classrooms talked about it as though it was something they’d seen on television. Each child will handle it differently. I was very impressed with the calmness of the children,” Joy said.

“It’s just tragic,” said William G. Steiner, board president of the Orange Unified School District, which includes Panorama school.

“I don’t understand the motives for someone walking in off the street and doing something like that. . . . That’s a very close-knit community kind of nestled up there in the canyon.”

School district officials said that by mid-afternoon Monday they had telephoned the parents of all but 18 of the school’s students, asking them to come to school and take their children home.

Many of the parents gathered on the school driveway to talk about the shooting and its aftermath.

“When the school called, I just started shaking,” said Rebecca La Venia, mother of one of the Panorama students. “I almost thought it was a joke.”

Later that afternoon, the school district office issued a formal statement. “The Orange Unified School District regrets this incident but is thankful that no students or employees were harmed,” the statement concluded.

Times staff writers Sandra Crockett and Ray Perez contributed to this story.