Yes, it is homework. Is it an issue that I'm asking for help?

Frankly not in my view. Sure, it might have been better for you to state upfront that this was homework (this was almost obvious), but you did otherwise everything according to the rules. Especially, you did not ask for someone to write code on your behalf, but just asked for assistance on a specific difficulty with a script that you provided, that compiled correctly and was almost right, but just did not yield the expected result. To me, this is perfectly acceptable, more than that, this is even one of the raisons d'être of this forum, to help people having difficulties with Perl, whether in academic or real life context. So, no problem (IMHO), take it easy.

If a more senior or experienced monk thinks I am wrong, please let me know.