For Teens by Teens : LA Youth Publication Takes Serious Approach to Serving Audience

Alleged police brutality of minority teens. A first-person account of childhood molestation. Two pages crammed with articles on responsible sexuality.

That’s pretty heady stuff for a group of high school journalists.

But it’s regular fare in LA Youth, a publication put out by 100 or so high school students from throughout Los Angeles County. With a citywide circulation of 50,000, editors of the news tabloid say LA Youth gives teens a voice that often is not heard in mainstream publications.

The paper, the youngest in a chain of teen-oriented publications across the nation, is no stranger to hard-hitting news coverage that attracts attention from teens and adults citywide.

But the current issue seems to have struck a particularly responsive chord.

Since publishing its June-July cover story on alleged police brutality, staffers say they have fielded an avalanche of calls from interested adults and high school students who say they too have been the victims of police abuse.

“We have received 250 phone calls about this issue,” said Donna Myrow, executive director of LA Youth. “We got calls from students interested in joining the paper, students who wanted to share their experiences with the police and teachers who wanted more copies. . . . We have never gotten such a response.”

The article, titled “Do Police Abuse Teens?,” used a February confrontation in Will Rogers State Historic Park between 26 youths and members of the Los Angeles Police Department to focus on the larger issue of alleged police abuse.

Last month, lawyers for the youths filed a $5.2-million lawsuit against the police officers and the city. Attorneys for the youths have said the incident, which allegedly occurred Feb. 12, was racially motivated.

In writing the story, 16-year-old Josie Valderrama, a student at Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies High School, interviewed several gang members, some of the alleged victims, church leaders, lawyers, the FBI and Los Angeles Police Cmdr. William Booth.

Lt. Fred Nixon, the department’s chief spokesman, said police are conducting an internal investigation of the incident. Nixon would not comment further because of the pending litigation. He said he has not seen a copy of LA Youth and declined to comment on the article. Valderrama said she is surprised and gratified by the attention the article has received--including inquiries from Time magazine and “Good Morning America.”

“I don’t think teens are valued much in society,” Valderrama said. “Papers seldom show us in a favorable light. I feel it is important to show that teens do more than worry about SATs (aptitude tests) and hang out in shopping malls.”

And that’s what separates LA Youth from other papers, she said. The paper focuses on issues that are pertinent to teen-agers.

Published six times a year by the Los Angeles bureau of Youth News Service, a national nonprofit teen-oriented wire service, LA Youth is circulated to 97 high schools in the city and every public library, said Myrow, one of two paid adult staff members. The other, Elizabeth Hartigan, a former reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News, serves as editorial adviser for the young journalists.

The paper, which is going into its third year of publication, is part of a growing network of teen-produced papers that began in Chicago in 1977 with the creation of New Expression.

That publication was the first citywide high school publication in the country written by and for teens, said Craig Trygstad, a co-founder of New Expression and executive director of Youth Communication, the umbrella group for the youth media network.

Now there are teen-oriented papers in Portland, Ore., New York, Toronto and Wilmington, Del., Trygstad said. All participate in the Washington-based Youth News Service, which feeds youth-related information to more than 500 schools and corporate clients.

LA Youth has an operating budget of nearly $100,000, which comes from grants given by foundations and companies ranging from the James Irvine Foundation to American Airlines. Its one-room office at 6030 Wilshire Blvd. consists of three computers, a typewriter and two phones.

The paper, which has no formal ties with the Los Angeles Unified School District, is delivered to teachers who take responsibility for circulating it to students.

“I think the paper is invaluable,” said school board member Rita Walters. “The paper demonstrates in a tangible way the importance of the Fourth Estate and what a free press means to Democratic principles.”

Any high school student with an interest in voicing an opinion or dealing with a teen-related issue is encouraged to volunteer, Hartigan said. Staffers stressed repeatedly during interviews that the paper offers a freedom that seems absent from some area high school newspapers.

“If all the topics that were covered in their latest issue appeared in one issue at some high school papers, the adviser would probably be looking for a new assignment,” said Dan Auiler, teacher and adviser for the Franklin Press at Franklin High School in Los Angeles.