Fired Over Kissing Skits—Back Teaching Kids

Students in a classroom raising their hands to answer a question

A Denver teacher fired for graded same‑sex kissing skits is now back in a Colorado elementary school classroom teaching younger children.

Story Snapshot

Fired Denver French teacher Jennifer Honka was unanimously dismissed after an investigation into graded same‑sex kissing skits with minors.^[3]
A judge found her skit assignments and personal disclosures “incompetence and neglect of duty,” with little educational value.^[3]
Despite this, she has been hired at a Colorado elementary school as an English language arts teacher.^[4]
Parents now face a system that quietly recycles controversial teachers instead of putting child safety and family values first.^[4]

How a Controversial Skit Assignment Led to a Firing

Denver Public Schools board members voted 7‑0 in May to fire French teacher Jennifer Honka after students reported feeling pressured to kiss classmates during graded French skits.^[3] The district investigation found she used scripts titled “The Neighbors Saw Everything” and “The Boring Kiss,” which included multiple kissing scenes between characters who were dating.^[3] According to reports, the students assigned to kiss were always the same sex, raising clear questions about age‑appropriate content and the teacher’s judgment in a public school classroom.^[3]

Students told investigators these skits were not just harmless role‑play, because performance in the biweekly skits counted toward their grades.^[1] One student said Honka posted a classroom rule that “the answer is always ‘yes,’” and that this rule was referenced to push students to take part even when they were uncomfortable.^[3] Another student who refused to participate reportedly received a zero, while a different girl did the skit, then shared a meme saying “she makes girls kiss,” and later saw her attendance drop sharply.^[1]

Judge’s Findings: Sexualized Skits, Sensitive Disclosures, and Neglect of Duty

An independent review by Colorado administrative law judge Keith Kirchubel backed the district’s move to fire Honka and spelled out why.^[3] The judge wrote that even if she did not physically force students to kiss, her choice of scripts put minors on the spot to express consent or refusal about a “personal and sexualized activity” in front of peers while she held grading power over them.^[3] He concluded her use of these skits, plus repeated disclosure of “sensitive and potentially traumatizing information,” amounted to “incompetence and neglect of duty.”^[3]

The review said Honka often discussed deeply personal topics with students, including her sexuality, use of a sperm donor, childhood abuse, fertility struggles, and suicidal thoughts.^[1]^[7] She defended this as a way to build trust, but at least one student already dealing with suicide reportedly left her class.^[1] The judge found these disclosures had negative effects on students and offered “little or no educational value,” especially in a foreign language course where parents expect actual language skills, not adult confessions or identity talks.^[3]

From Unanimous Firing to a New Elementary School Job

After the investigation and the judge’s report, Denver Public Schools publicly stated that student “safety, emotional well‑being, and dignity” were their top priorities, and the board unanimously terminated Honka for “incompetence and neglect of duty.”^[3] That should have been the end of the story, with a clear signal that pressuring minors into sexualized behavior and oversharing adult problems has no place in K‑12 classrooms.^[3] Instead, the system quietly moved on while parents assumed their kids were now safer.

But Honka did not leave teaching for long. Reporting now shows she is listed as a teacher in the English language arts department at Malley Drive Elementary School in Colorado.^[3]^[4] Townhall notes that this hiring came “despite a unanimous ruling to fire her,” and that she returned to a classroom without even taking a school year off.^[4] In other words, a teacher removed over sexualized same‑sex skits with teens now works with even younger, more impressionable children, in a different district that appears comfortable with that risk.^[4]

What This Says About Schools, Accountability, and Parents’ Rights

This case highlights a pattern that many parents have come to fear: controversial educators are pushed out of one district, only to land in another, with little warning to families.^[4] The Denver case shows the system can act when students and staff speak up, but the follow‑up hiring shows how easily another district can shrug off those findings and bring the same person into an elementary classroom.^[3]^[4] Parents who assume background checks catch these issues may not realize how fast a teacher can simply move districts and start again.

For conservative parents who value traditional teaching, modesty, and clear boundaries between adult issues and children, this story is a wake‑up call. A judge and a school board both agreed that a teacher’s conduct was “irresponsible and inappropriate,” yet that same teacher is now shaping the minds of younger kids.^[3]^[4] The message is clear: if families want schools that protect their children’s innocence and respect their values, they cannot rely on the bureaucracy alone. They must stay engaged, ask direct questions about who is in the classroom, and demand real transparency from local officials.