Student ‘germophobes’ attempt to keep dirt and disease at bay, but school does not always make the job easy

By Julie Kippenbrock
<[email protected]>

As she washes her hands, junior Krista Henry said she sings the ABC song to herself.

“I sing the ABCs sometimes when I wash my hands but I used to do it all the time,” Henry said.

While many students may have long-since abandoned this hand-washing rule from elementary school, Henry is different. In fact, Henry is one of a few people who is so conscientious about germs one might even go so far as to call her a “germophobe.”

Henry said she washes her hands not only after every time she uses the bathroom, but also every day before lunch. “I don’t even know why I do it. I think I got it from my mom. She always washes her hands and never touches door handles,” Henry said. Like her mother, Henry said she also doesn’t like to touch door handles. She uses her elbows or pulls her sleeves over her hands.

Henry said her mother is a bigger germophobe than she is. “I wouldn’t say she has a full out phobia, but she is pretty close. You wouldn’t think it; she was raised on a farm,” Henry said. “She has never liked to touch door handles, but I wash my hands more than she does.”

However, rather than discount Henry’s habits, freshman school nurse Althea Albritton said she thinks this precaution is one many students should take. “(Hand-washing) is a very necessary precaution. In general, people have very little awareness (about germs) unless they have a medical background of how unsanitary their hands are and the huge significant the hands have in transmission of diseases or infections,” Albritton said.

Albritton also said this is the reason why a poll completed in 2005 by Harris Ineractive is still true today. The national poll stated that 91 percent of adults claimed that they washed their hands after using a public restroom. But of the 6,336 adults whose behavior was observed, only 82 percent actually did so.

According to sophomore Gracie Mauer, she is also considered a germophobe by her friends. “People would consider me one but I don’t think I am. I’m probably in denial,” Mauer said.  She said she wasn’t always like this. “It just came up the last year of two. I became more aware of different types of germs and how they are spread,” Mauer said. Mauer said she also has a special way of opening doors. “I touch the top of it where no one touches it,” Mauer said.

Mauer said she also hides her toothbrush. When she was little, her mom bought her and her siblings the same color toothbrushes. They wrote their names on each of their toothbrushes but her siblings never looked and just took a random one. Mauer said she thought this was gross and then started to hide her toothbrush from her siblings and still today she hides it, in a basket under the sink. Mauer said she believes this might be because she has obsessive compulsive disorder, though she has never been diagnosed with the condition. “I’m OCD with everything. I have to make sure my I turn my lock on my locker three times before I leave and the pillows on my bed have to be in a certain order,” Mauer said.

Albritton doesn’t exactly think being a germophobe is a bad thing. “It depends on the degree (of the phobia),” Albritton said. “It could become a big problem if it starts affecting someone’s life. But awareness needs to be on everyone’s mind.”