Key figures in South Korea’s failed martial law bid share one key connection: they are all graduates of a prestigious, all-boys school in Seoul. The coincidence has sparked wild online speculation and even forced the school — a respectable but not academically famous, fee-paying establishment — to issue a public rebuke of its infamous alumnus. President Yoon Suk Yeol’s Tuesday declaration of South Korea’s first martial law in decades was swiftly overturned by parliament, and the conservative former prosecutor now faces impeachment and possible jail time. South Koreans have been quick to point out that 63-year-old Yoon, his former defence minister, interior minister and head of the military’s intelligence all graduated from the Choongam High School. There’s as yet no evidence that the connection played a role in their disastrous bid to shut down South Korea’s parliament. But that hasn’t stopped many online from pointing fingers — leading the school’s superintendent Yoon Myung-hwa to quickly discredit her school’s infamous alumni. She declared Yoon and ex-defence minister Kim Yong-hyun, 65, as “Choongam’s most embarrassing alumni a million times over”. “They destroyed the reputation of the nation, as well as our school,” she wrote on Facebook. Classes were on as usual at Choongam — a normal looking high-school in a peaceful leafy northwestern district of Seoul — on Friday, though administrators were clearly tense about the unwanted attention the school was getting. The school is being bombarded by criticism from outsiders, with even bus drivers becoming the targets of bitter rants by citizens angry at current events. Students have even been given special permission not to wear their school uniforms, local media reported, to prevent them from being targeted by angry members of the public. When AFP toured the school Friday, students — who were not wearing uniforms — seemed confused to see reporters walking through their building, as they continued with lessons. Superintendent Yoon told AFP the school was “distressed” to find itself associated with this week’s dark chapter in South Korean democracy.