Katy Nolan/Staff Writer, PNW News Agency
A Denver Public Schools teacher who once received top performance ratings has now lost her job after an investigation concluded that she required students to participate in same-sex kissing scenarios as part of graded classroom assignments.
In a unanimous 7-0 vote, the Denver Public Schools Board of Education voted to terminate Jennifer Honka, a French Language and Culture teacher at Northeast Early College. The official grounds for dismissal were “incompetence and neglect of duty.”
What makes the case particularly noteworthy is not simply the nature of the assignment itself, but the broader questions it raises about activism in the classroom, student consent, religious objections, and whether personal ideology can cloud professional judgment.
According to reports from CBS Colorado, Colorado Politics, and the Denver Gazette, concerns first emerged during the 2023-24 school year when students began approaching other teachers to complain about skits being used in Honka’s French classes.
Role-playing exercises are common in foreign language instruction. Students often act out conversations in restaurants, airports, stores, or social situations to practice vocabulary and pronunciation. However, investigators determined that the issue was not the use of skits themselves.
The problem was the content.
According to an independent review completed in April 2026, students were assigned scenarios that required them to engage in same-sex physical contact, including kissing. Multiple students testified they felt uncomfortable with the assignments, yet participation was tied directly to their grades.
One student testified she refused to participate and received a zero on the assignment.
Another student reportedly became so uncomfortable that she walked out of class.
An English teacher at Northeast Early College testified that students approached her upset about the situation. One student allegedly reported being asked to kiss three different female classmates as part of various skits.
Perhaps most strikingly, testimony indicated that the same-sex pairings overwhelmingly involved female students.
One student interviewed during the investigation stated that despite classes being nearly evenly split between boys and girls, she could not recall Honka selecting male students for these scenarios. Instead, female students were repeatedly chosen.
That detail became difficult to ignore as investigators examined the broader context.
According to the independent review, Honka had openly identified herself as a lesbian and was active in LGBTQ advocacy and support efforts.
Critics argue that this case demonstrates the danger that emerges when personal beliefs and activism begin influencing classroom instruction.
The question is whether students were being pressured into participating in activities that reflected their teacher’s worldview rather than any legitimate educational objective.
The independent review concluded that the assignments had little connection to actual language acquisition and instead placed students into situations they had not voluntarily chosen.
Just as troubling was Honka’s reported reaction to the backlash.
According to testimony cited in the review, Honka attributed much of the student opposition to strong Christian backgrounds among the students.
That observation became a significant part of the controversy.
While Honka reportedly believed she was facing discrimination because of her sexual orientation, critics argue that she appeared unwilling to consider that students may have had sincere moral, religious, or personal objections to being required to kiss classmates as part of a graded assignment.
An independent reviewer reportedly noted the irony.
For someone who championed diversity and acceptance, attributing student concerns primarily to their Christian beliefs carried what the reviewer described as “its own discriminatory ring.”
That assessment gets to the heart of the issue.
True diversity means respecting differences in all directions.
Students who identify as LGBTQ deserve respect and protection from harassment. But students who hold traditional religious convictions deserve the same consideration.
In recent years, many schools have emphasized inclusion regarding sexual orientation and gender identity. Yet cases like this reveal how quickly inclusion can become exclusion when students with traditional beliefs are treated as obstacles rather than individuals with rights of their own.
No student should be forced to affirm, participate in, or physically act out behaviors that violate deeply held convictions simply to receive a passing grade.
The Denver school board’s unanimous vote suggests members saw the situation as straightforward.
There were no dissenting votes.
No abstentions.
No lengthy public debate.
Seven board members reviewed the findings and reached the same conclusion.
The dismissal sends a message that public school teachers have a responsibility to educate rather than advocate, and that classrooms cannot become platforms for advancing personal ideological agendas–whether political, religious, or sexual.
For many parents, the case also reinforces a growing concern that some educators are increasingly willing to blur the line between instruction and activism.
Students attend school to learn languages, mathematics, science, history, and literature–not to be compelled into participating in intimate scenarios that make them uncomfortable or violate their beliefs.
The controversy surrounding Jennifer Honka is ultimately bigger than one teacher or one classroom.
It raises a question schools across America will continue to face: Can genuine diversity exist if religious students are expected to set aside their convictions whenever those convictions conflict with prevailing cultural narratives?
The Denver Public Schools board answered that question in this case with a decisive vote.
The rights and dignity of students mattered more than the ideological preferences of their teacher.
