Church's 'Black Lives Matter' sign repeatedly vandalized on Long Island

STONY BROOK, Long Island (WABC) -- A "Black Lives Matter" sign outside a Long Island church has been vandalized again and again.

Now church leaders in Stony Brook say it's time to take it down, at least for now.

"The sign is important to our congregation, to our denomination and to our country," said Barbara Coley, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

That's why those with the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Stony Brook put it right underneath their sign on busy Nicholls Road.

But days after hanging it, someone crossed out the word Black and put Blue.

"We cleaned it up. It was defaced again. Someone wrote All Lives Matter. We cleaned it up. Put it out again," Coley said. "Then someone stole it."

The entire ordeal is upsetting parents of Imagination Preschool, which shares the building with the church.

"We don't feel safe, it's not good for our business," said Eileen Hummel, the owner of Imagination Preschool.

Hummel demanded the congregation remove the sign.

"We're just worried if there is a deranged person out there and who knows what they would do," Hummel said.

Those with the church say they're attorney advised them they should take down the sign temporarily.

Church members will vote in September whether to put it back up again.

"We hope that in the interim we can begin to have conversations which enlighten the community and some of the parents at the preschool," Coley said.

They hope to set up some meetings soon.