A Denver teacher is out of a job after allegedly pushing students into kissing one another during language class skits.
The teacher, 50 year old Jennifer Honka, was formally dismissed after an internal investigation by the district and an independent review found that she pressured female students to engage in same sex kisses as part of graded classroom performances.
The scandal erupted inside Northeast Early College, a school within the Denver Public Schools system, where Honka taught French Language and Culture for eight years.
Known for previously receiving top teaching evaluations, she is now accused of ignoring professional boundaries in pursuit of woke classroom theatrics that made students uncomfortable.
According to the independent review, which CBS Colorado obtained, Honka designed “skits” with kissing scenes and insisted students participate as written.
One student described being “very uncomfortable and did not know what to do,” yet said she went along with the direction and kissed another student.
Those assigned to act out the scenes were almost always of the same sex, raising obvious concerns among parents and colleagues.
Board members voted unanimously to fire Honka during a closed door meeting on May 20.
Their decision was final, with no public debate and no dissenting votes.
The official justification for her dismissal cited “incompetence and neglect of duty,” though the true nature of the case went far beyond paperwork.
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The review found that Honka pushed certain themes inside her classroom that had nothing to do with the French language lessons she was supposed to teach.
Students told investigators that Honka often used class time to talk about her LGBTQ activism and identity.
Some even claimed she made a habit of selecting female students to act out romantic roles in her instructional skits, while rarely assigning male students to do the same.
One student said she was given a failing grade when she declined to take part in a kissing scene.
The class assignments themselves carried suggestive titles like “The Neighbors Saw Everything” and “The Boring Kiss,” each containing three separate kiss cues.
A chilling account from one student described a posted rule that read, “The answer is always yes,” a slogan Honka allegedly emphasized repeatedly to steer students toward compliance.
Colleagues were disturbed when multiple students approached them to share what was happening behind Honka’s classroom door.
An English teacher reported that one female student appeared “upset and defeated” after being told she had to kiss three girls during class skits.
It was only after that teacher went to the administration that police and district officials became involved.
Despite the overwhelming number of complaints, Honka tried to defend herself by saying students had “options.”
She claimed she permitted “blowing kisses” or “fist bumps” if pupils were uncomfortable.
Yet multiple students insisted that those so called options never affected grades.
Several stated clearly that refusing to participate resulted in lower scores, creating pressure to go along.
The district referred the incident to police, though investigators have not yet filed criminal charges.
Parents, however, are demanding to know why it took so long for the district to respond and why such inappropriate material found its way into a middle school class in the first place.
Denver Public Schools has provided few details beyond confirming the vote and the firing.
Many parents see this as yet another example of how liberal ideology and activist instruction have replaced solid academics in public education.
Instead of teaching grammar and vocabulary, students were being roped into behavior that would get any adult fired instantly in any other environment.
Classroom activism disguised as “cultural education” has no place in American schools, and conservative parents across the country are taking note.
Adding to the disgust, this is not the first time a teacher has crossed that line.
Only months earlier in Las Vegas, another teacher named Rasheda Rose faced two felony child abuse charges after encouraging middle schoolers to kiss during a classroom game.
The fact that such incidents are becoming more common points to a deeper cultural and moral problem inside public education systems dominated by progressive ideology.
The district appears eager to move past the story, but the community should not. Children are owed real education, not indoctrination.
Parents have every right to demand transparency, accountability, and common sense from public officials.
When teachers forget their role and begin engaging in social experimentation, it is up to school boards to act swiftly.
In this case, the board made the right choice by showing Honka the door, though that decision came far too late to erase what students were subjected to.
It should not take viral news coverage for school systems to recognize boundaries.
The uncomfortable truth is that today’s public schools are becoming ground zero for cultural politics at the expense of children.
Denver’s latest scandal is proof that the trust between parents and public education has been severely tested, and unless schools return to traditional teaching values, it may not recover.
