[ WP ] The government has officially banned alchemy from the school curriculum . It has become the latest hot button political issue .

> `` President Signs Alchemy Ban, Protests Erupt'' 
 Adam Levinson, staff writer 
 
 WASHINGTON -- President Obama condemned superstition and psuedoscience on Monday as he signed the Enlightenment Against Alchemy Act of 2016. The bill, which was passed to the President after six months in committee, bans the inclusion of alchemy in all secondary and post-secondary school curriculums. 
 
 `` I am embarrassed when I hear my colleagues discuss attempts to transmute matter at home. We have already discovered how to transmute matter. We do it every day in accredited scientific research institutions across the world. You ca n't reproduce that in a kiln.'' 
 
 The President then lauded Senator John Thune, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, for his efforts in pushing the bill through Congress. Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, released a statement after the bill passed. 
 
 `` The committee has seen countless files detailing the failed experiments of these individuals. There was not a day during our deliberations where I did not see an image of some dead or maimed child. It pleases me that these images will not pass by my desk again.'' 
 
 Across the nation, pro-alchemy advocates staged demonstrations against the President's decision. On Capitol Hill, an estimated 1,500 protestors carried signs reading `` Newton was an alchemist'' and `` Science for the mind and soul''. Students at the University of California at Berkley burned a 20 foot wicker effigy of an oroboros, an alchemical symbol of a self-consuming snake. 
 
 `` You've done a disservice to our future'' said Cyrus Crowley, founder of the American Institute for Alchemical and Hermetic Studies. `` By banning all study of alchemy, [ President Obama ] has denied the American youth a chance to discover the true nature of creation. I will continue to appeal this so long as I am allowed.'' 
 
 **From Occult Secrets to Public Education** 
 
 Crowley was a central figure in the rise of alchemy to popularity. In March 2012, he submitted a treatise to the American Journal of Science titled `` Recreating Lithological Metamorphosis through Deep-Earth Emulation''. The treatise claimed Crowley had produced stones of marble by calcinating and distilling dolomite. He was later relieved of his tenure at the University of Central Arkansas after failing to recreate his results. 
 
 Crowley later founded the AIAHS in September 2012, amid an already growing public interest in alchemy. In January 2013, the institute released the now best-selling Opus line of alchemical textbooks and lab manuals, targeted at grades sixth through twelfth. By January 2015, Opus curriculum was implemented in over 5,000 public school districts across the nation. 
 
 In Washington, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas introduced Senate Bill 1313, which would have provided grants to secondary and post-secondary institutions for purchasing alchemical equipment and materials. The bill was rejected in April 2015 by a vote of 64-23. 
 
 `` The pendulum is swinging our way,'' said Cotton at an anniversary gala for the AIAHS. `` Alchemy answers intellectual and spiritual questions that science ignores, and the people recognize this. Because there is dissatisfaction, there must be choice.'' 
 
 Although SB 1313 failed, Cotton's strong comments and rapidly growing supporters brought alchemy into the national dialogue. A 2015 Gallup poll showed that 48 % of Americans supported an alchemical curriculum in their local school district, up from 21 % in 2014. 
 
 **Swallowing Its Own Tail** 
 
 Opponents to the growing influence of alchemy included Senator Thune, who held a series of committee hearings on the efficacy of the discipline. In one hearing, a member of the AIAHS research division was asked to reproduce and introductory experiment designed for sixth graders. The individual later refused to relinquish her results to the committee and was cited for contempt. 
 
 Meanwhile, public opinion shifted after a series of high-profile accidents involving Opus curriculum. In September 2015, five students in North Dakota died attempting to create Panacea, an all-curing medicine purported by medieval scholars. Autopsies revealed that each student had high levels of mercury in their bloodstream prior to death. 
 
 Another such case was the Agrippa Middle School fire in Fort Wayne, Indiana. On November 7, 2015, alchemy teacher Stan Offenbach dropped a crucible of molten lead during a routine projection demonstration. The metal ignited a cabinet of unstable chemicals, resulting in the injury of 23 students and the death of Offenbach. 
 
 His wife, Maria Hall-Offenbach, filed a class action lawsuit against the AIAHS in January 2016. The institute denied any wrongdoing, but agreed to a $ 30 million settlement in April. Speaking before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Hall-Offenbach spelled doom for the study of alchemy. 
 
 `` Every day, I see a new lawsuit against [ Cyrus Crowley ]. Some are for fraud, others for negligence, but most are for damages. His advocates may cry prejudice and conspiracy, but they will sink like lead once they lose something to him. The truth, however, shall remain golden.''
