The Denver Public Schools board voted 7-0 on May 20 to terminate 50-year-old French language and culture teacher Jennifer Honka for "incompetence and neglect of duty" after an investigation found she allegedly pressured students to kiss classmates of the same sex during classroom skits that counted toward their grades.
Honka, a veteran educator with more than two decades in the classroom, taught at Northeast Early College in Colorado. The allegations that ended her career are as specific as they are disturbing: students said she wrote scripts requiring them to kiss one another, used those skits as graded assignments, and enforced a classroom rule that "the answer is always 'yes'" when students hesitated.
An independent review, triggered after Honka appealed her termination, found that the students selected for kissing roles were "always the same sex." One student directly testified that Honka always chose girls to act in the skits, despite a nearly 50/50 split of boys and girls in the class. That student, CBS News reported, "could not recall Honka choosing a boy actor."
The skits were not optional extracurriculars. They were biweekly assignments tied to students' performance grades. That detail matters. A student who refused to participate reportedly received a zero. Another student walked out of class entirely.
Court documents obtained by CBS Colorado revealed more. One student told an English teacher that she had been asked to kiss three other girls in one of Honka's skits. The documents describe the student as "very uncomfortable" and unsure what to do. She ultimately kissed another student at Honka's direction.
The fallout among students was visible before any adult intervened. A digital meme circulated among students featuring a picture of Honka and the caption "she makes girls kiss." That meme reached a chemistry teacher in April 2024, which appears to have set the formal investigation in motion.
Cases of educator misconduct involving students continue to surface across the country. An Ohio teacher recently pleaded guilty to sexual conduct with a 15-year-old student, underscoring the persistent vulnerability of minors in school settings where adults abuse their authority.
Colorado administrative law judge Keith J. Kirchubel did not hold back in his written findings. Fox News reported that Kirchubel wrote:
"Regardless of whether (Honka) '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."
That framing cuts through Honka's central defense. She claims she gave students alternatives to kissing, including fist bumps or pretend kisses. But the judge's finding makes clear that even offering a choice placed students in an impossible position, publicly declaring their comfort level with a sexual act in front of classmates, with their grade hanging in the balance.
Kirchubel also concluded that while using skits to teach French may have been effective in general, "the way it was implemented by (Honka) was irresponsible and inappropriate."
The pattern described in the independent review raises questions that go beyond poor pedagogy. The review found Honka used the skits to grade students, that she pushed reluctant participants with the "yes" rule, and that the kissing pairs were consistently same-sex. The court documents further revealed that Honka shared details of her personal life with students, including her sexual orientation and status as a lesbian, her use of a sperm donor, and what the documents describe as her "suicidal ideation."
Sharing that level of personal information with students is, at minimum, a serious boundary violation. Combined with the pattern of same-sex kissing assignments, it paints a picture of a classroom where a teacher's personal identity was woven into the academic environment in ways students could not escape.
Honka reportedly told investigators she was being discriminated against because of her sexual orientation. It is a familiar playbook: when the conduct is indefensible, reframe the accountability as bigotry.
But the Denver Public Schools board was unmoved. The 7-0 vote left no room for ambiguity. The New York Post reported that the district found Honka's conduct failed to protect students' well-being. An administrative law judge independently reviewed the case and reached the same conclusion. The discrimination claim has not altered the outcome.
The age and grade level of the students involved are not specified in available reporting. That gap matters. Whether these were 14-year-olds or 18-year-olds, no student should be graded on willingness to kiss a classmate. But if the students were younger, the conduct becomes even more troubling.
Troubling cases involving educators and minors are far from isolated. A New York City theater teacher was recently sentenced to 12 years in prison after the FBI uncovered a massive collection of child abuse material, a grim reminder that the adults entrusted with children sometimes pose the greatest threat.
The independent review established several key findings. Students who were pressured to kiss were always paired with classmates of the same sex. One student was asked to kiss three other girls in a single skit. Honka selected only girls for acting roles despite an evenly split class. Students who refused faced academic consequences. And Honka enforced participation with a blanket classroom rule that consent was assumed.
What remains unclear is how long this pattern persisted before students spoke up. The first documented report to another teacher came in April 2024. Honka had been teaching for more than 20 years. The meme circulating among students suggests the behavior was well known among the student body before any adult took action.
Also unanswered: whether any criminal investigation was opened, what specific district policies Honka violated beyond the "incompetence and neglect of duty" finding, and whether other staff at Northeast Early College were aware of the skits before the chemistry teacher received the meme.
The case arrives amid a broader pattern of school employees facing serious consequences for misconduct involving students. A North Texas assistant principal was recently arrested for allegedly offering a student alcohol and lingerie in exchange for sex, another case where the system caught up with an educator only after the damage was already done.
Honka's defenders may try to reduce this to a creative-teaching-gone-wrong story. The facts don't support that reading. A teacher who writes scripts requiring students to kiss, grades them on participation, tells them "the answer is always yes," selects only same-sex pairs, and shares her own sexual orientation and deeply personal struggles with a captive audience of minors has not simply made a pedagogical misstep.
She created a classroom environment where students' physical boundaries were subordinated to her authority and, potentially, her personal identity. The student who received a zero for refusing to kiss a classmate learned a clear lesson, just not one about French.
When misconduct by public figures comes to light, accountability often arrives late. A Kentucky Democrat recently ended his primary bid only after security cameras caught him in the act. In Honka's case, it took a student meme to force the adults in the building to confront what students already knew.
Judge Kirchubel's conclusion stands as the clearest summary of what went wrong. The scripts forced minors to publicly navigate consent around a sexualized act, in front of their peers, for a grade. That a school board had to vote unanimously to state the obvious, that this was wrong, says something about how far institutional common sense has eroded.
Parents send their children to school to learn. Not to be graded on how willingly they kiss a classmate at a teacher's direction.
