At my son’s school, some teachers are very anti-Wikipedia. For instance, he is not allowed to use the popular online collaborative encyclopedia as a source for his report on Dwight D. Eisenhower.

I use Wikipedia a lot, and I’ve always thought the criticisms leveled against it were overblown. The fact is, there’s always going to be some opinion involved with a huge encyclopedia, and if you have your wits about you, you should be able to tell when something is a legit entry.

But a story today -- detailing some of the ugly, behind-the-scenes dealings of those who run the site -- is making me wonder about the integrity of Wikipedia.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle and Associated Press:

Jimmy Wales, the Internet whiz famous for creating the online, user-edited encyclopedia Wikipedia, is facing allegations on two fronts that he abused the trust of the community he helped build.

Former Wikipedia employee Danny Wool is alleging that Wales misused money from the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit group that oversees the site.

At the same time, Wales has been hit with concerns that he inappropriately tinkered with a Wikipedia entry on behalf of a girlfriend, a television news commentator, whom he abruptly dumped last week.

Some of the juicier, only-in-the-Internet-age details are buried toward the bottom of the Chronicle story:

The financial allegations surfaced after Wales' breakup with conservative commentator Rachel Marsden, a former contributor to Fox News. Marsden said Wales dumped her through a blog posting.

Marsden responded by leaking steamy instant message conversations, apparently between her and Wales, to tech gossip site Valleywag. She also began auctioning off on eBay clothing that she said Wales had left at her New York apartment.

Wales, meanwhile, told a reporter Tuesday that he “acted completely consistently with Wikipedia policy."