VHS basketball coach placed on leave after incident with student

A former Vineland High School Teacher of the Year has been placed on paid administrative leave, according to district officials.

Albert Porter, a social studies teacher and head boys’ basketball coach at VHS, was suspended from both positions Friday, according to school district spokeswoman Gia Messore and personnel director Joe Rossi. It's his second suspension from the team in two months.

Porter was involved in an inappropriate incident with a member of the basketball team that occurred off campus, according to Messore.

“We are still gathering information into what happened and the investigation is still going on,” she said.

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Messore said that the Vineland Police Department had been contacted about the incident.

Rossi said he wasn’t aware of any letters sent out to parents concerning the incident, but acknowledged that athletic director Don Robbins had met with the team. Will Baumgardner, the junior varsity coach, will be interim varsity coach, he said.

“We are doing our due diligence with this situation; we are still putting everything together,” Rossi said.

The Fighting Clan was 5-4 heading into Tuesday night's home game against Bridgeton.

Porter previously had been suspended from the team for 10 days for an incident that happened in December. At that time, Robbins confirmed Porter was suspended but said he couldn’t go into detail, saying it was a personnel matter.

According to both Messore and Rossi, the latest suspension wasn’t related to the incident that happened in December.

Porter is in his first season as the high school boys’ basketball coach, but has been a longtime coach in Vineland youth basketball leagues.

He earned the Vineland High School South Teacher of the Year honor in 2012. His current salary is $83,899.