HOA requires North Naples family take down high school graduation yard sign

A yard sign is causing a big controversy in one North Naples neighborhood.

A Barron Collier High School student celebrating graduation was told to take the sign down off her lawn by the Victoria Park homeowners’ association.

Take the sign down — or else.

“It was really upsetting,” said Rebecca Pacter, who had just graduated.

As if finishing her senior year of high school wasn’t hard enough, now her own neighborhood homeowners’ association is dampening her graduation.

“You’re telling me I can’t have a simple sign in my front yard,” she asked.

In an email exchange with Rebecca’s dad, the HOA said unapproved yard signs must be removed by June 20.

The Pacters asked to keep it up until July 24, Rebecca’s graduation day. The answer: “They said that it cannot stay up until July 24 and that it needs to be taken down right now, immediately,” Rebecca said. “Basically everything’s been wiped away due to COVID: senior prom, my last band concert on stage, my senior graduation cruise we were going to take, the graduation ceremony.”

So the Pacters plucked the sign out of the grass and put it in their window for now.

“We were trying to figure out what would happen if we left it up and we could be fined and then they’ll take the sign and so we just decided to put it in the window,” Rebecca said.

They hope now that the HOA will make an exception, allow the sign and help send Rebecca off to Cottey College in Missouri come August.

We reached out to the HOA for reaction, but have not gotten a response.