BOSTON – As the old saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished.

Boston third-grade teacher Nikki Bollerman wrote an essay for a #WishForOthers contest about how she wanted her students to leave for Christmas break with a book to read.

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She won the contest, books for her students and a $150,000 prize.

Bollerman made headlines when she promptly donated the prize money to her school, UP Academy Dorchester.

She said it was “the right thing to do,” according to the Boston Globe.

“I never thought about keeping it for myself,” she said. “I won it for the kids, and that’s where it’s going to go.”

The teacher was featured on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, where she picked up another $25,000, school supplies for her students and gift cards for her school’s teachers to buy supplies.

But now, CommonWealth magazine is speculating by accepting the cash and supplies, Bollerman may have fun afoul of state ethics laws and may need to give it all back.

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The magazine reports:

According to the ethics laws, charter school teachers are considered public employees and as such are subject to a $50 limit on gifts.

“Nikki Bollerman is a remarkable woman and we are incredibly fortunate to have her and hundreds of teachers just as committed as she is in the UP Education Network,” school founder Scott Given tells the magazine.

“When she first received word of her prize, her immediate thought was to give back to her students and school. UP was grateful to Nikki for her generous gift and felt it was based on who she is as a person, as an individual, rather than her role as a teacher, and was therefore appropriate. We have since reviewed the matter further and feel the donations are appropriate and reflect the exemptions allowed for acceptance of such donations. We are very proud of Nikki and believe she exhibited a level of selflessness that few of us could match.”

At issue is whether Bollerman wrote the essay in her capacity as a public employee or a private citizen.

The school contends the latter.

In the essay contest, Bollerman wrote: “I’m a third-grade teacher in a low-income, high-risk elementary school in Boston, MA. My #wish for others is that my voracious, adorable, hard-working, loving scholars all leave for their December break with a book in their hand,” according to the Globe.

The paper reports:

In advocating for Bollerman to keep her winnings, a UP official cited a 1982 Ethics Commission decision that ruled that a state employee, who was part of a branch of the Judiciary, could keep $500 won in a contest entered “on your own time and at your cost.”

“Gifts can undermine public confidence in government. It creates an appearance problem,” David Giannotti, chief of the public education and communications division at the State Ethics Commission, tells the magazine, while not specifically addressing the Bollerman situation.