The is investigating for the second time in less than two years after a teacher was accused of making female students kiss each other in class, the agency announced Tuesday.
The agency said it is specifically looking into whether the incident, which occurred at Northeast Early College, violated a federal law regarding parents’ rights as well as Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
DPS, the state’s largest K-12 system, fired the French teacher earlier this year after students alleged she made them participate in skits that called for teenagers to kiss one another and shared what a judge called “sensitive and potentially traumatizing information” in class. The judge determined DPS had sufficient evidence to terminate Jennifer Honka’s employment for cause.
District spokesman Scott Pribble said DPS just received notice about the investigation today and that “it would be too early to comment” on the allegations levied against the district.
“The safety, emotional well-being, and dignity of our students are the absolute highest priorities of DPS,” he said in a statement. “Our actions to date have been wholly consistent with those priorities. Immediately after learning of student concerns with this teacher in March 2025, the district placed the teacher on administrative leave and completed a thorough investigation.”
The Education Department said its Student Privacy Policy Office is investigating whether the incident violated the federal
The agency’s Office of Civil Rights will also determine whether the incident violated which was created to ensure women and girls can participate in school activities without harassment.
In a statement, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said DPS allegedly “compelled the sexual assault of minor students by forcing them to engage in blatantly sexualized conduct in class.”
“It is abhorrent and the Trump Administration will fully investigate this perverse incident to protect students’ safety and vigorously uphold students’ rights across America,” she said.
The new investigation is part of the Trump administration’s nationwide crackdown on K-12 systems with policies that support transgender students and other members of the LGBTQ community. The federal government has repeatedly threatened to pull federal funding from school districts with policies that it calls discriminatory, and said Tuesday that the Education Department is announcing several investigations — such as the one into DPS — and other actions against school districts this week in recognition of “National Parents’ Day,” which was on Sunday, according to the news release.
The Education Department has launched three other investigations into Colorado school districts since President Donald Trump resumed office last year. The agency accused DPS last year of discriminating against girls by creating an all-gender bathroom at East High School, but hasn’t followed up with the district — which defied orders to remove the facilities — on the case in months. More recently, the Office of Civil Rights began investigating Cherry Creek Schools for what it called “a wide range of racially discriminatory programming,” including clubs that allegedly exclude students based on their race.
The agency has been most aggressive in pursuing its investigation against Jeffco Public Schools, which the Education Department alleges discriminated against girls by allowing transgender students to compete in female sports and access female facilities. The department gave 10 days to agree to a proposed resolution — including reversing policies that allow transgender students to play sports — or risk losing federal funding. The district has called the Education Department’s claims “erroneous” and is preparing for a legal fight to protect the tens of millions of dollars that might be pulled.
DPS placed Honka on leave last year after an investigation into the allegations against the teacher. The educator, who is gay, accused DPS of discriminating against her because of her sexual orientation and appealed her termination, according to a court document. The case went before a judge who ruled in April that DPS could fire the teacher for incompetence and neglect of duty.
Students made other allegations against Honka before her termination, including that she told them that her son was conceived using sperm from one of her aunt’s husbands and described her own suicidal ideation in class.
