Check It Out
TV You Gotta See: New season of The N’s signature series
By Laura Ferrara

Degrassi: The Next Generation Premiering Friday, July 11 at 8:00 p.m. (ET)

Degrassi high school students are back with an awesome redecorated school and a brand-new season on The N, NOGGIN’s nighttime network just for teens!

The teens at Degrassi Community School deal with problems that lots of teens go through like peer pressure, relationships and stress You know, LIFE! The series also includes issues like eating disorders, alcohol abuse and death. The show follows Emma (Miriam McDonald) and her classmates and friends Ashley (Melissa McIntyre), Terri (Christina Schmidt), Jimmy (Aubrey Graham), Sean (Daniel Clark), Manny (Cassie Steele), Liberty (Sarah Barrable Tishauer), Paige (Lauren Collins), Spinner (Shane Keppet), Craig (Jake Epstein), Marco (Adamo Ruggiero), Ellie (Stacey Farber), Toby (Jake Goldsbie), J.T. (Ryan Cooley) and Hazel (Andrea Lewis) as they travel through high school and experience all of the ups and downs of teen-dom. Although the problems may seem similar to yours, the outcomes may surprise you!

The special 90-minute season opener episode is about the very serious issue of date rape. According to Sexual Assault Services, 61% of all rapes occur before victims reach the age of 18. T he majority of victims are between 15-25 years old. Unfortunately, only 7% of rape victims report the incident to police. This may be because 73% percent of those forced to have sex, do not realize that their experience was rape.

In the date rape episode Paige has her eye on a cute older soccer player, Dean (Shawn Roberts), from Degrassi’s rival school, Bardell High. When she goes to a party with her friend Hazel, Paige does her best to impress the older cutie. Unfortunately, he turns out not to be the guy she thought he was.

While you impatiently await the premier of the first episode, you can get a sneak peek of Degrassi while you catch up on the old shows during “The Every Degrassi Episode Ever Marathon.” Just in time for 4th of July. The weekend-long marathon shows back-to-back episodes every night 6:00 p.m.-5:00 a.m. (ET) on Friday, July 4-Sunday, July 6.

If you want to talk or learn more about date rape, or another episode of Degrassi, check out The N’s discussion guide where you can freely chat about any episode you want.