For most teenagers, high school consists of math exams and English essays, football games and school dances but for 60 students in Darien, Connecticut their high school experience goes well beyond the classroom. These 14-18 year olds run Darien EMS – Post 53, which is the first and only emergency medical ambulance service in this town of 20,000 residents. Darien EMS is also the only fully accredited ambulance service in the world operated by teenagers. Even more incredibly, this group has been named one of the best emergency ambulance services in the United States, volunteer or professional, based on their exemplary patient care

Now in its 38th year, founder John E. Doble established Explorer Post 53 in 1970. It was Doble's dream to supply an experience for his children, then teenagers, that not only gave them responsibility and purpose but also taught them about the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse. Of the six hundred Post 53 graduates, approximately half have gone on to medical school or related medical fields while the others have become successful in business. Doble says, “The group's aim is not to turn out good med students, but good people. The kids who go through the program are successful later in life because they know how to deal with life's ups and downs. They are thrown into highly stressful situations and they have to respond effectively or it could cost a life. Through extensive training, they gain the ability to handle life and death situations and make critical decisions. With those skills, they can certainly handle anything the business world or life in general throws at them." Doble says over the years, he has received several calls a month from people all around the world asking how they can start a similar group. All have failed. Why has Darien EMS - Post 53 survived and flourished while others have fallen? Simple says Doble, "you must give complete trust and responsibility to them or it doesn't work. Often other outfits have the 'kids' assisting the adults. Here it is the opposite; our 25 adult advisors assist the kids. The 'kids' call all the shots from how to care for a patient to allocation of funds. It's their organization, not mine."

These young emergency medical technicians are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year and respond to over 1500 emergency calls annually. They cover a four-mile stretch of Interstate 95 considered one of the deadliest roads in America. Every day, they put their skills to the test in real life and death situations: everything from childbirth to cardiac arrests to severe car accidents all while attending high school full time. By the time each Post 53 member graduates, they will have donated roughly 15,000 hours of their time. Amazingly, they are not paid nor do they receive any school credit. It’s 100% volunteer. Why would anyone, let alone a teenager, do this? High School 911 will answer this question and many more.

High School 911 is a dramatic, feature-length documentary film that goes inside the walls of this unique organization examining its history, structure and day-to-day operation. Shot over the course of the academic year, High School 911 focuses on the lives of current Post 53 members, freshmen through seniors, as they journey through this rigorous, highly structured, one-of-a-kind program. High School 911 explores why these teens participate: the lessons they learn, the training they receive, the sacrifices they make, the perspective and empowerment they obtain as well as the lifelong friendships they create. The film shows how these teenagers can govern their own organization yet still work alongside professional adults as equals including police and fire personnel as well emergency room doctors and nurses. High School 911 highlights all aspects of their lives: family, school, friends, extra curricular activities and how they all are impacted and shaped by the powerful and time-intensive experience with Darien EMS - Post 53. Riding along on real emergency calls, the film reveals how these “kids” are able to handle these high stress situations and deliver exceptional emergency care. Patients live and patients die. Ultimately, these young people experience what no other teenagers in the world do. They learn about emergency medicine but more importantly, they learn about life.