Steve Kapani’s good deed didn’t go unpunished. After Kapani, 36, told city officials that he suspected charter school executive Brenda L. Belton was siphoning public money for herself and her friends, Kapani was labeled “disgruntled” by Board of Education President Peggy Cooper Cafritz and relieved of his duties.

He was on paid administrative leave for more than a year, until he hired prominent whistle-blowing attorney Mona Lyons and threatened to sue. He settled for an undisclosed sum and resigned.