Veggian said Pagan asked her and Carruth to provide proof of the grade changing. They were told to keep quiet while district officials reviewed the information. She expected action over the summer, but nothing happened. It would take two years for the district's internal investigation to confirm what she and Carruth had uncovered.

"I did what I was told," she said. "I kept my mouth shut and then they came along in December with a transfer and demotion, and I still hadn't said anything."

When the 2004-05 school year began, angry parents demanded to know why students weren't promoted. Their ire grew when Clayton, a popular guidance counselor, was suspended pending an investigation into the alleged grade changing.

Meanwhile, Veggian faced growing pressure at Brimm, where a secret petition was circulated to oust her. Plans were in the works to demote her and transfer her to Camden High as a math teacher. She said she also felt resentment as a white administrator in a predominantly minority district.

The school board backed down after Veggian hired a lawyer and filed a federal whistle-blower lawsuit in January 2005. But Veggian said the stress took a toll on her health, and she went on sick leave for a month.

"It kind of looks like [district officials] reward the bad guys and punish the good people," Veggian said during an interview at the law office of her attorney, Morris Smith. "What kind of message is that to our children?"

But former school board member Dwaine J. Williams, a Clayton ally, said Veggian should not be viewed as a hero. In his experience, he said, grades could be changed at other city schools if students did extra work.

"She's a whistle-blower, but she's whistling nothing," Williams said.

Carruth - as a new principal - relied on Veggian, 61, a veteran of the district for nearly four decades. She had been transferred to Brimm the year before from Camden High.

"We depended on each other. People who might not know her that well see a hardness and directness," Carruth said. But there was another side to her, he said. "She reminded me of my mom."

Karen Borrelli, a health and physical education teacher at Brimm, described Veggian as "an outsider and a loner who knows operation and policy."

Evans Roebuck, a former guidance counselor at Brimm, called Veggian very credible and "a highly professional person."

"I know she did her job and did it to the letter of the law," Roebuck said.

Veggian began her career in the city at Camden High in the '60s, during the civil-rights riots and the upheaval in the Parkside section, which changed from a predominantly Jewish neighborhood to a mostly black one.

Her passion for teaching never wavered. She devised new teaching methods and contacted parents at home.

A longtime friend and neighbor, Linda Ivins, said Veggian had always had high ethical standards and a knack for details.

"If she tells you something, it is so," Ivins said. "She doesn't shoot from the hip."

Carruth said he confided in Veggian shortly after Pagan allegedly asked him in January 2005 to rig Brimm's math scores. Veggian confirms that Carruth talked with her but insists the conversation occurred two weeks later in February.

Borden cited the discrepancy as among seven reasons that he deemed Carruth's allegations about Pagan as untrue.