HUNTINGTON PARK : Teen Activist on County Youth Panel

A Huntington Park High School junior who participated in a sting operation to halt cigarette sales to minors has been appointed to the Los Angeles County Commission on Youth.

Sixteen-year-old Angelica Yocupicio said she hopes to use her new post to address the plight of low-income children and to enlist her peers in organizations that serve the homeless and keep watch over the environment.

“Adults aren’t taking enough responsibility to care for our youth,” said Yocupicio, an honors student and chair of the Huntington Park Youth Commission, which advises the City Council on the concerns of local youth. “It’s up to people who care, to find out who is breaking the law and to start the youth on a better road.”

The 20-member county youth commission advises the Board of Supervisors on a range of issues affecting young people. It focuses largely on health, education, employment, recreation, delinquency and family relations, commission staffer Roseann Donnelly said.

The commission’s monthly meetings will add to Yocupicio’s crowded schedule.

Aside from the Huntington Park Youth Commission and the Huntington Park High School Youth Community Services club, whose members clear bus stops of graffiti and conduct litter pickup drives, Yocupicio attends neighborhood watch gatherings, as well as City Council and recreation and parks meetings.

However, among her peers and teachers, she is perhaps best known for her role in a state-funded sting operation to reduce the number of places cigarettes are sold to minors in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Under the supervision of Huntington Park High School health teacher Ric Loya, Yocupicio and other students bought packs of cigarettes from stores, then sent letters advising the businesses that they had broken the law.

Loya, who organized the pilot program, said the number of sites in the target area selling cigarettes to minors dropped from 70% during the students’ first visit in the spring of 1991 to about 30% during subsequent visits through this past July.

Loya praised Yocupicio’s activism.

“Let’s put it this way: My wife and I would be proud if she would have been our daughter,” Loya said. “She’s got so much potential. Down the line, look out, folks.”

Yocupicio, who was appointed to the three-year commission post by Supervisor Gloria Molina, said it is another way for her to offer direction to youth who want to get involved in social and political causes.

“I think I’m prepared,” Yocupicio said. “I’ve worked for it.”