I have declared a static string in one script component of a gameobject, and am trying to access it in a script component of another game object. The static string is declared here:

public class PlayerStatus : MonoBehaviour 
{
    public static string mainStatus = "1";
}

In the other script, I attempt to print the string to console and eventually use the string in some methods.

public class Player : MonoBehaviour 
{
    GameObject statusContainer;
    string currentStatus;

 void Start() 
    {
       statusContainer = GameObject.Find("StatusContainer");
       currentStatus = statusContainer.GetComponent<PlayerStatus>().mainStatus;
       print(currentStatus);
    }
}

The script as such gives the error:

"Static member `PlayerStatus.mainStatus' cannot be accessed with an instance reference, qualify it with a type name instead"

I've tried putting the script containing the static string into the Standard Assets folder to make sure it gets compiled first, so that's not a problem.