In a case of queer overreach so extreme that even the far-left Denver Public Schools board was forced to act, a lesbian-identifying Colorado teacher was fired this spring after repeatedly pressuring students to kiss same-sex classmates during supposedly instructional classroom skits.
Teacher Jennifer Honka was employed for the past eight years to teach French Language and Culture at Northeast Early College (NEC), a high school which is part of the Denver Public Schools district.
Tales of Honka’s inappropriate kissing assignments were a topic of gossip at the school going back several years. They were part of classroom skits engineered by the teacher to allegedly teach students about French language and culture. The skits were given titles such as “The Neighbors Saw Everything” and “The Boring Kiss,” and focused on characters who were dating. “The script for ‘The Boring Kiss’ includes three different moments when the characters are directed to kiss each other,” CBS News reported, making kissing a central feature of the assignment.
It was only after receiving repeated complaints from students over the course of several years that school administrators acted, submitting a report to the Denver Police and commissioning an independent report to ascertain the facts of the situation.
Alarms were first raised during the 2023-2024 academic year when a student in Honka’s French class told her chemistry teacher at NEC about the kissing skits and expressed great discomfort with being forced to participate.
“The student was very uncomfortable and did not know what to do,” the independent report stated. “She went ahead and kissed another student at (Honka)’s direction. The student then shared a digital meme with (the chemistry teacher) that included a picture of (Honka) and the caption ‘she makes girls kiss.’ The meme had circulated among the students. After this incident, the student’s attendance decreased dramatically.”
“One student interviewed directly in the independent review also testified that Honka always selected girls to act in the skits,” CBS News reported. “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.”
That student was far from alone in feeling targeted and humiliated by the teacher’s forced lesbian kissing. An English teacher at the school “testified that several students approached her as well,” noted CBS News. “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.’”
Beyond the highly inappropriate kissing skits, other aspects of Honka’s educational practices suggest deliberate grooming behavior. “One student reportedly said that Honka had a classroom rule that went, ‘the answer is always “yes”’ which was used by Honka to encourage students to participate in the skits, which were biweekly and part of their performance grades,” notes Fox News. Additionally, “Honka had allegedly disclosed to the class that she was a lesbian and an LGBTQ supporter.”
After receiving repeated complaints from students about the class kissing skits, School Principal Jennifer Warren acted in her role as a mandatory child protection reporter, collecting statements from the students and bringing them to the Denver Police Department. However, no criminal charges were filed against Honka.
Despite the lack of a criminal case, administrative law judge Keith J. Kirchubel had some choice words about Honka’s conduct in the independent review which he authored.
“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,” Kirchubel stated. “They were also forced to determine whether they were comfortable dissenting from the direction of the script to their teacher, who was in a position of control over the situation.
“[W]hile the notion of using skits as a way to teach French Language may have been effective in general, the way it was implemented by (Honka) was irresponsible and inappropriate,” he added.
The independent review also revealed additional concerns about Honka’s conduct as a teacher. “Those included allegations that she conveyed personal information with her class — including details about her history as a victim of child abuse, her struggles with infertility, and her consideration of suicide,” CBS News reported, adding that one student in the class who “suffered suicidal ideations of his/her own” had “walked out of the class” in response to these disclosures.
Following the release of the independent report condemning Honka’s conduct in the classroom, the members of the Denver Public Schools board voted 7-0 to fire the teacher for “incompetence” and “neglect of duty.” It was a necessary result, but one that should have come much sooner. One must wonder if Honka’s status as a queer faculty member played a role in protecting her from earlier intervention by the school administration. If she had pushed her students to parrot biblical teachings instead of act out lesbian relationships, it is hard to imagine that they would have hesitated to stop the inappropriate behavior immediately.
Disturbingly, despite her egregious record of inappropriate and unprofessional behavior in pushing lesbianism on her students, Honka is now listed on the website of Malley Drive Elementary School in Northglenn, Colorado as an English Language Development teacher. Let’s hope that administrators there are paying much closer attention.
Photo Credit: Screen Shot on X.