Bullied brother's experience leads to exhibit

by PAUL MORTON

Associate editor

Tammy Hrinda began building the "Through Our Eyes" exhibit at the Firelands Association for the Visual Arts to show what was not being done to stop the bullying against her brother. But through it she learned instead what she could do.

Hrinda said bullies at school had tormented her younger brother, David, since he was in sixth grade. She said bullying is common in middle school -- she experienced some herself -- but this went beyond anything she could imagine.

"It was everything," Hrinda said. "He'd come home with his shirt torn, black eyes. They'd spit in his face, call him names. You name it, they did it to him."

Last year, when David entered high school, the bullying continued. Hrinda said she was so troubled by the bullying she went to principal William Baylis.

"I went to the principal, and he said they were doing what they could," Hrinda said. "We went to the police, and they said the bullies were minors, so they couldn't do much."

The breakthrough and the exhibit came as a result of Hrinda's street law class taught by Bill Roniger and local attorney Angela Wu. One day, Hrinda asked to meet Wu after school when she told her David's history of being bullied.

"What we do in street law is try to get people to communicate with the community about whatever it is that's the problem," Wu said. "So I said, I know you're an artist. I had first met her because she was reading poems at a public protest. So I said, why don't you write a poem about this."

Hrinda did write a poem, but she told Wu she wanted to show what was happening to David. So Wu contacted a professional friend, Teri Wang, to help Hrinda show it.

"I think when Angela first suggested Tammy take pictures, there was some hope that there would be some evidence gathered," Wang said. "I encouraged her to be just open to what the project could be."

The exhibition does include photographs of one bullying event at the high school, and a description and police report from an incident when David was struck on the arm with a street sign. But much of it depicts his family life, which was the basis of much of the teasing and other bullying.

Wu said Hrinda's parents, who are white, have two biological children and seven adopted children, including Tammy and David, who are black. Their mother, Lola, in a statement included in the exhibit, said that family dynamic is no excuse for bullying.

"David has had some rough times -- kids hitting him, throwing things at him, calling him names -- because they think he's different. But he's just a normal boy," Lola Hrinda wrote. "David also gets treated bad because his parents are white. I was always taught that the color of a person's skin does not matter -- we are all the same."

Allison Swaim, an Oberlin College student studying radio broadcasting, helped Hrinda record and compile the audio portion of the interactive multimedia display. She also serves as an intern in the street law class, and served as a motivator during late night and early morning hours in the final days of preparing the exhibit.

"We called her Energy," Hrinda said. "It would be 1 a.m., and I'd be laying on the floor, and Allison is still going, telling me to get up and get moving."

The exhibit is sponsored by the Oberlin Schools Endowment Fund, the Creativity & Leadership: Entrepreneurship at Oberlin Project, TIMARA department, and the Oberlin Student Philanthropy Club. FAVA provided exhibition space free of charge.

Even law enforcement and the Marcs Discount store in Chardon got involved in the exhibit. Wu said she got a speeding ticket trying to get to the Marcs store for frames before closing; she called the store and the manager agreed to stay open an extra 30 minutes so Wu could get the frames.

Hrinda said working on the exhibit showed her police and school officials are already doing what they can to stop bullying. And it showed her she can help stop it by drawing attention to the problem and by affirming the victims of bullying.

"I learned a lot of times the bully might be the victim of bullying," Hrinda said. "We need to let them know they're all right; they don't need to be bullying people."

The exhibit will be on display in the south gallery at FAVA through Oct. 31. Hrinda said she has been touched by the comments of people who said the exhibit had an impact on them.

Wang said that was the goal.

"The overarching theme is: We didn't want the exhibit to be about the product," Wang said. "We're thrilled the product turned out as nice as it did. But we wanted the people to have a response to it and to do something about this subject."