A Denver French teacher was fired last month after a district investigation and an independent review found her script choices for graded classroom skits had placed female students in a position of feeling pressured to kiss one another. The Denver Public Schools board unanimously voted May 20 to dismiss Jennifer Honka, 50, who taught French Language and Culture at Northeast Early College.
The board voted 7-0 following an executive session, with no public debate among members before the vote. The official grounds for termination were incompetence and neglect of duty.
Ms. Honka had taught at the school for eight of her 24 years in education and had received the highest possible district evaluation ratings for three consecutive years before complaints emerged during the 2023-24 school year. Students began approaching other faculty members to report that they had been asked to kiss one another during bi-weekly skits that counted toward their grades.
An independent review issued April 30 and written by Colorado administrative law judge Keith J. Kirchubel found that the students selected for the kissing roles were consistently the same sex. One student reported the situation to a chemistry teacher in April 2024, telling her she had been uncomfortable but participated at Ms. Honka’s direction. A digital meme circulated among students bearing Ms. Honka’s photo and the caption “she makes girls kiss.” That student’s attendance subsequently dropped sharply, according to the review.
One student who testified directly in the independent review said she could not recall Ms. Honka ever selecting a male student to perform in the skits, despite an approximately even split of boys and girls in the class. That student refused to participate and received a zero on the assignment. Another walked out of the class. A third reported to an English teacher that she had been asked to kiss three other girls in one skit.
The skits at issue were titled “The Neighbors Saw Everything” and “The Boring Kiss,” the latter of which involves characters in a romantic relationship and includes three scripted moments calling for the characters to kiss. Students also told investigators that Ms. Honka posted a classroom rule stating “the answer is always ’yes,’” which was invoked to pressure participation. Ms. Honka told investigators she did not recall applying that rule during a skit and said students had alternatives, such as pretending to kiss or giving a fist bump. One student who complained did testify that Ms. Honka would allow students to pretend.
Mr. Kirchubel concluded that regardless of whether Ms. Honka literally forced students to kiss, her script selection placed students in a position of having to publicly express their preferences about a personal and sexualized activity in front of peers while under the authority of their teacher.
“[W]hile the notion of using skits as a way to teach French Language may have been effective in general,” he wrote, “the way it was implemented by (Honka) was irresponsible and inappropriate.”
The school’s principal, Jennifer Warren, filed a police report with the Denver Police Department after a third student came forward. No criminal charges resulted, and no staff member directly witnessed any of the alleged kisses, according to the review.
Separately, Ms. Honka was also found to have shared personal disclosures with her class, including accounts of childhood abuse, infertility struggles, and suicidal ideation — including an impulse she described to drive in front of a semi-truck. She maintained those disclosures were intended to build rapport and help students feel they had a trusted adult available to them. One student in the class who had experienced suicidal ideation of her own walked out, though Ms. Honka testified she had no knowledge of that student’s mental health history. Mr. Kirchubel found the disclosures reckless.
Ms. Honka contended she was targeted because of her sexual orientation and union activity. According to the review, she had filed 18 grievances against the district as a teachers’ union representative, none of which included a discrimination claim. The judge rejected her bias argument, noting that the school appeared to foster a welcoming environment for LGBTQ staff and students, and found that students’ references to Ms. Honka’s identity did not reflect overt negative bias.
Mr. Kirchubel also noted that Ms. Honka had attributed students’ complaints to their religious backgrounds — a characterization the judge called discriminatory in its own right.
Ms. Honka appealed the district’s initial termination recommendation as permitted under Colorado’s Teacher Employment, Compensation and Dismissal Act of 1990, which triggered Mr. Kirchubel’s independent review. The board could have retained her, placed her on probation, or terminated her. It chose termination.
Rob Gould, a special education teacher and president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, issued a statement saying every student deserves to feel safe and that safety concerns must be addressed through thorough investigation and due process.
Denver Public Schools said in a statement that the safety, well-being and dignity of students are the district’s highest priorities and that it commends the students who came forward and the staff who acted as mandatory reporters.
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