Manny Santos Abortion & Fame

In the episode "Accidents Will Happen (parts 1&2)" (season 3, episodes 14 & 15) Manny Santos, a young girl of Spanish Catholic decent, finds out she's pregnant. This comes as a shock to her, her parents, and the guy she is pregnant for. The guy she is pregnant for is Craig Manning. The thing about the prgnancy is that Craig had cheated on his girlfriend to have sex with Manny. Manny becomes very upset and don't tell her father. She confides in her mother and they seek the help of a doctor. Craig is really excited and wants to be a father, the father he never had. When he hears about Manny's decision to have an abortion, he becomes very upset. Manny ends up having the abortion with no negative effects. This episode wasn't aired right away in the States. According to Wikipedia.com, it was because the episode was too controvesial. It showed someone getting away with abortion scotch free. The idea was that there should of at least been some kind of punishment for her abortion. This is also looked down on in the Christian community, and since the United States are under a "Christian Government", these particular episodes were banned for a while.   Manny later has bad luck in season five. Season five is when Manny wants to become famous. Fame, according to the Bible, should not be something to go to someone's head. When it comes to being famous, a person should be level headed. Manny goes to great lengths to impress agents and become someone famous. Fame consumes her. This leads to a lot of bad luck on Manny's part. Her father tells her acting is like being a prostitute and that if she chooses to do it, he's kicking her out. Manny is left to live with Emma. She later becomes bulemic and then has the boy she loves torn between two girls. This bad luck with not getting an agent but also being kicked out and out of love can be looked at as payment for her obsession with fame or even as payment for her abortion two years prior. Either way, the wicked ways that are portrayed are getting their payback here.

Emma Nelson Anorexia & STIs

In the episode "Secret (parts 1&2)" (season 4, episodes 14 & 15) Emma Nelson, a young girl who is all about enviromental safety, gets involved with the wrong crowd. She finds herself involved with Jay and ends up going to the place where all the "cool" crowd hang out. Emma is pressured into giving him oral sex. This would be considered wrong in most religions and in essence, it should have consequences. Overall it does. Emma ends up contracting a STI in her throat. She is very ashamed and don't want to tell her parents. It gets worse when the guy she is supposed to kiss in the play won't kiss her because of the rumours. This leads to Emma finally confessing and getting it treated. In the end, the bad things she did were payed for.   Emma in season five becomes anorexic. In the book of Matthew in the New Testament it says it is a sin to fast to become skinny. Therefore, it is a sin to be anorexic. Emma pays for this in the end though. Like every other Degrassi: TNG character who does something bad or to harm others, they pay for it. Emma becomes very sick when she stops eating. She gets dizzy and light headed. She faints in the middle of the hallway at school. Finally she has a freak out at Manny, Peter and her parents about not being anorexic, but because she has so little energy from not eating, she faints again and this time is put into the hospital. Although everything goes good for her in the end, she still had to spend a while in the hospital as a consequence for her actions.

Ellie Nash Self Injury, Atheism & Goth

Ellie is a self proclaimed atheist. She is also a gothic. Nothing ever goes her way. This is shown in the episode "Whisper To A Scream" (season 3, episode 8) when Ellie basically has to pay for her actions. Because she is atheist it seems nothing goes her way. Good is never on her side. She gets juice wasted on her, her mom is acholic and don't pay any attention to her, her dad is gone off to war, school work is piling up. She don't have anyway of letting out her pain so she starts cutting herself. she claims it's the one pain that she could control. When finally Paige finds out what Ellie is doing, she tells the social worker. Ellie starts visiting the social worker, and when she learns the errors of her ways, her luck even starts getting better. As Ellie's luck gets better, you can also slowly see a decline in her gothic ways. By season five Ellie is still dressing in all black, but not to an extreme like before. The fact that she is atheist is still a factor though. This is something she still pays for. She still can't get the guy she wants (Craig). Although this is only one interpretation of it, this is one way that Ellie's bad luck can be looked at, to be a punishment for her atheism.

Liberty Van Zandt Premarital Sex & Lies

In the episode "Rumours And Reputations" (season 1, episode 10) Liberty Van Zandt, the smartest girl in the seventh grade, is seen with the math teacher, Mr. Armstrong. Emma sees Mr. Armstrong with his arm around Liberty and gets the wrong idea. She then tells Manny that is worried about Liberty and thinks Mr. Armstrong could be doing something to her. This is overheard by Terri and the story gets passed around the whole school. This lie becomes a big rumour which almost cost a teacher at Degrassi his job. When it's found out, Liberty confronts Emma. Emma apologizes saying she didn't mean to start it and Liberty confesses that she has a problem in math and was getting help from Mr. Armstrong. Because she is so smart she didn't want to let people know she was getting this help and ruin her reputation. This big fuss came out because of one rush to judgement. Judgement is considered bad in most religions, especially Christianity. This shows the bad side of jumping to conclusions. It also shows the bad side of lies, rumours and gossip.   Liberty, in season five, becomes pregnant. She gets involved with J.T. and because of her actions, she has to pay the consequences. Unlike most people, J.T. and Liberty are happy about their baby coming. The thing is, her parents aren't. They say that the baby will only take away from Liberty's studying and school work and they force her to put it up for adoption. This is how Liberty has to pay for the wrong she did when she decided to have pre-marital sex with J.T.

Paige Michalchuk Rape

In the episode "Shout (part 1 & 2)" (season 2, episode 7 & 8) Paige Michalchuk, captain of the Spirit Squad, Degrassi's Cheerleaders, finds herself attracted to an older guy on the other schools soccer team. His name is Dean and he invites her to a party. At this party Paige attracts all the wrong attention. Dressing in a low top and a short skirt, she gives Dean the impression that she's there for something. Dean leads Paige upstairs and rapes her. Hazel is at the party with Paige but don't hear anything because of the loud music downstairs. Prior to being raped, Paige was the girl who had everything, the looks, the body, the popularity. She made it her job to make other people's lives miserable. It took this incident to make her realize that bad things can happen to her as well as anyone else. After being raped Paige became a better person. Like in Christianity, a lot of the times it takes a bad incident to make someone see the error of their ways, the same can be said about Paige.