A baseball coach who also worked in the college admissions office, making $60,000 a year Packer College Institute, A teacher at an elementary and middle school in the upscale neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights has been fired for inappropriate behavior, according to an email reportedly sent to parents at the school.
Nicholas Morton, a 2012 graduate of Packer College, has worked at the school since 2019, most recently serving as associate director of admissions and baseball coach.
Morton, 30, also ran his own traveling baseball team. NYC Freedom Baseball.
“We have received reports that Mr. Morton has engaged in a series of inappropriate conversations and interactions with both Packers players and non-Packers players on Mr. Morton’s personal traveling baseball team,” school administrators wrote in a message to parents reviewed by The Washington Post.
“It is never easy to suddenly lay off faculty or staff members, especially during such uncertain times,” the letter read. “Out of consideration for the students and families affected and due to our ongoing investigation, we are limited in the details we can share.”
Two parents of Packer High School students were aware of the contents of the letter but declined to disclose details.
“We’ll know more in the coming days,” one parent told The Post.
The Washington Post was unable to reach the school’s president, Dr. Jennifer Weyburn, or spokeswoman Ann Conway. Neither Morton nor the co-founders of NYC Freedom responded to requests for comment.
Morton himself was a standout player on the Packer baseball team during his time at the school, and in 2011, The Washington Post reported that the then 17-year-old Morton was one of Packer’s “best players.”
“He’s the centerpiece of our turnaround,” coach Chris Luck said at the time about Morton, who was then a junior. “Everybody on our team looks at him as a big boy. He’s our poster boy. If we had one or two more guys like him, we’d be at the top of the league.”
Morton is one of the co-founders of the NYC Freedom Travel Team, a travel team for kids under the age of 12. While it was still active as of August 8, the team’s website appears to have been taken down on August 9.
Morton was named an Under Armour Preseason All-American and was named to MSG Varsity’s Top 10 list of New York’s best baseball players, according to the website. He attended and played baseball at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and Washington and Jefferson College in Pittsburgh.
