Colorado Teacher Made Same-Sex Students Kiss During Assignment
A Colorado public school teacher was fired after students reported that she pressured same-sex classmates to kiss during graded French-language skits, according to local reports and an independent review.
Jennifer Honka, a 50-year-old French Language and Culture teacher at Northeast Early College in Denver, was dismissed by the Denver Public Schools Board of Education in a unanimous 7-0 vote on May 20, CBS Colorado reported. Honka had worked for the district for eight years and had 24 years of teaching experience.
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The school board terminated Honka for “incompetence and neglect of duty,” according to CBS Colorado. The vote came after an executive session and followed a district investigation and independent review by Colorado administrative law judge Keith J. Kirchubel.
Honka claimed she was targeted because of her union activity and her sexual lifestyle, but Kirchubel rejected that argument. The judge also wrote that Honka attributed the backlash to students’ “strong Christian backgrounds,” adding that the comment had “its own discriminatory ring.”
Students first complained during the 2023-24 school year that Honka’s class skits required kissing, CBS Colorado reported. The independent review found the students selected for the kissing scenes were “always the same sex.”
One student told a chemistry teacher she was deeply uncomfortable, according to CBS Colorado. “The student was very uncomfortable and did not know what to do,” the report stated. Students also circulated a meme with Honka’s picture and the caption, “she makes girls kiss.”
Another student said she refused to participate and received a zero on the assignment, CBS Colorado reported. A separate student walked out of class.
The skits reportedly included titles such as “The Neighbors Saw Everything” and “The Boring Kiss,” with the latter script directing characters to kiss multiple times. Students said part of their grade depended on performing the biweekly skits.
One student interviewed directly in the independent review also testified that Honka always selected girls to act in the skits. Despite a nearly 50/50 split among boys and girls in the class, the student “could not recall Honka choosing a boy actor.”
This student refused to participate and testified that she received a zero score for a grade on this assignment.
Another student said she walked out of the class.
An NEC English teacher testified that several students approached her as well. One of the students “appeared upset and defeated,” as stated in the independent review. “The student told (the English teacher) that she had been asked to kiss three other girls in one of (Honka)’s skits.”
Colorado Politics reported that Honka’s classroom policy included the rule: “The answer is always ‘yes’ in this class.” Honka reportedly defended the rule by saying it applied to basic classroom expectations, such as putting phones away and being respectful.
Kirchubel wrote that the problem was not using skits to teach French, but the way Honka implemented them.
“Regardless of whether Respondent ‘forced’ the participants to kiss, her choice of script forced them to express their preferences and consent about a very personal and sexualized activity on the spot in front of their peers,” Kirchubel wrote, according to Colorado Politics.
Honka denied forcing students to kiss and said students could use alternatives, including pretending to kiss, blowing a kiss or fist bumps, CBS Colorado reported. The independent review also noted no staff member witnessed the alleged kisses and that no criminal charges resulted after the principal filed a report with Denver police.
But investigators found other troubling classroom disclosures, including personal comments about childhood abuse, infertility and suicidal ideation. Colorado Politics reported Kirchubel wrote that Honka shared an impulse to “drive in front of a semi-truck.”
The teachers union said student safety must remain central. “When safety concerns arise, they must be taken seriously and addressed with care,” Denver Classroom Teachers Association President Rob Gould said, according to CBS Colorado.
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