Produced with the cooperation of the Santa Monica Police Department and the Santa Monica Unified School District. Santa Monica is a Los Angeles suburb that at the time this short film was produced (1962) had a population of about 84,000.
A longer (27 min) film of the same name was made by the same crew but aimed at a different audience. The 11 minute short is a scare film for teenagers, the 27 minute film follows several potential dropouts who are "saved" by various programs such as remedial reading, sports, school counseling and apprenticeship programs. Only Joe becomes a dropout, and society is blamed.