As Halloween night creeps forward, fears begin to heighten. However these feelings of fear are felt year-round with Perry students. When asked what phobias they have, here are some students’ responses. 

Gage Powers emphasizes his trypophobia, fear of clusters of small holes. This fear is triggered when making pancakes, “When you cook a pancake and you flip it over and it is filled with tiny holes, that freaks me out,” said junior Gage Powers. 

Senior Gehrig Tolman also feels uneasy with the sight of small holes and describes it as, “ the worst thing ever.” 

“I have a phobia of the deep sea, like the videos where it shows the depth of the ocean and then there are the gross animals down there,” said senior Jordan Suan when asked about her phobia, thalassophobia. Senior Wyatt Lewallen also feels the same way towards the deep sea, about 80 percent of the ocean is undiscovered. 

“If you fall down you are going to die,” said junior Jake Andreason when describing his fear of heights, acrophobia. This fear has made its way into his dreams when he feels the sensation of falling when he is asleep. 

Junior Emma James has experienced an odd fear of stickers since she was born. When asked about stickers she says, “they just gross me out.” Although she is bothered by stickers, tape does not phase her. 

Freshman Sienna Berry gets freaked out by Seaweed, fykiaphobia. “I do not like the touch or smell of it,” said Berry. This is triggered when she is in the ocean and it rubs against her. 

Another phobia surrounding water is freshman Maddie Dekavallas’ fear of fish hooks. “I got a fishing hook stuck in my leg and now I’m deathly scared of them,” said Dekavallas. This happened to her recently when fishing and she just got her stitches removed. 

Biology teacher Lilyann Myers experiences arkoudaphobia, the fear of bears. This is sparked when she is camping, “So whenever I go camping I sleep in the car,” said Myers.  

Podophobia is the fear of feet, which freshman Cayden Sicz emphasizes, “ They scare me so much.” This is triggered when people are barefoot or in flip flops. 

Freshman Jim Leon’s fear is, “… a duck staring at me.” This occurs more at night and makes Leon double check the corners of her room. 

Along with the fear of ducks, freshman Jaren Montoya is afraid of goldfish. These harmless animals scare Montoya because they are, “…freaky looking.”

Most students at Perry High School feel strongly about the distraught they feel when approached with their phobia. About 8.7% of the United States population suffers from strong phobias. These phobias can range from heights to the fear of a duck standing in their room but each causes fear among the student.