If you’ve grown up in the D.C. metro area, you’ve probably heard of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (better known simply as TJ). The school, located in Alexandria, is a Fairfax County public school that was turned into a magnet school for technology in the early 90s.

Over the weekend, the Post published an article about four young alumni of TJ (math and computer geniuses, naturally) who designed a multiplayer online game during their years at TJ. The role-playing game, Kings of Chaos, started off as a diversion for the designers; it now has 136,488 users and is one of the top 50 gaming sites on the internet. (We have to admit we also enjoyed the article because it featured a quote from one of our favorite high school teachers, Randy Latimer, who now teaches computer science at TJ but once sheparded us through the dark valley of CS at James Madison High in Vienna, Va.).

Anyway, even if you’ve never heard of TJ, you’ve probably heard of some of its more famous alumni. Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters attended the school, though he dropped out before graduating. The recent bestseller “The Rule of Four” was written by two TJ grads, Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. Screenwriter Ehren Kruger, who wrote “Arlington Road”, “Scream 3,” and, um, “Reindeer Games” graduated from TJ. And perhaps the most prestigious of all: Ivana Ma, lately of “The Apprentice,” was a ’94 grad.

Image of TJ’s logo taken from tjhsst.edu