At St. Louis High School, there are many students and teachers who have their opinions on how Halloween can be scary, or have other concerns with the holiday in general.
Mrs. Kaiser, an English teacher at SLHS stated, “There are scary movies and people come up with scary costumes. I have been to haunted houses that were scary, but I wouldn’t say that I find any of them to be truly frightening. I really enjoy the Halloween season. I enjoy costumes, pumpkin carving, scary movies, and Halloween movies.”
Mr. Miller, a fellow teacher at SLHS, stated, “Germs–and the sicknesses caused by them–frighten me. I don’t remember what caused my germophobia, but I remember being a chronic handwasher as a kindergartener. Whenever anyone sneezed at school or home, I would run to the nearest sink to wash my hands. If I had to guess, the fear probably stemmed from overprotective parents and growing up in a household that was constantly neat and clean. Unless I seek hypnosis therapy or face an extreme shortage of hand soap and sanitizer, I don’t foresee overcoming this fear. In fact, I view this ‘fear’ as a survival tactic, and I’ve learned to cope with it—mostly.”
What scares Harlee Dowd about Halloween are the decorations, like body bags and jumpscares of spiders. “The body bags scare me because I don’t like how it swings from the tree and the spider jumps at you. It started when I saw it for the first time,” Dowd said. She added that she might get over the fears, but she doesn’t know.
