Liberty Van Zandt

Articleissues
cleanup = February 2008
OR = September 2007
trivia = February 2008
unreferenced = February 2008
wikify = February 2008Infobox character
colour = #000080
colour text = #FFFFFF
series =
name = Liberty Van Zandt


caption = Liberty Van Zandt
first = (103)
portrayer = Sarah Barrable-Tishauer
episode = 111
nickname = Lib, Libby
born = November 1989
occupation = College Freshman at Smithdale University
title =
family = Danny Van Zandt (brother)
Harold Van Zandt (father)
Mrs. Van Zandt (mother)
spouse =
children = 1 son with J.T. (given up for adoption)
relatives =
residence =

Liberty Elizabeth Van Zandt is a fictional character on the television series "". She is portrayed by Sarah Barrable-Tishauer.

Character's background

eason 1

In "Family Politics", Liberty ran for Student Council Secretary while Ashley Kerwin ran for Student Council President. In the beginning, Ashley didn't seem to like Liberty, but as the season progressed, Ash and Liberty became somewhat friends.

In the episode "Rumours and Reputation", rumours began to spread around school that she and math teacher Mr. Armstrong were having an affair. Liberty's friend Emma Nelson began the rumour unknowingly, and was the first to volunteer to investigate the rumour's origin. It spread then to Terri McGreggor, Paige Michalchuk,Hazel Aden, and on and on and on. Things worsened for Liberty when she was interrogated by Principal Raditch about the rumour affair. Later on, Liberty reluctantly reveals to her friends the reason why Mr. Armstrong and herself had been spending so much time together: he was tutoring her to help her dyscalculia. She then tells Emma, and Emma, not realizing it was a mistake, feels horrible.

Liberty's crush on J.T. Yorke began in the episode "Secrets and Lies," and continued to season 4, when they finally unite as a couple. It begins when she wants to interview him for the school newspaper, "The Grapevine", but an uninterested J.T. attempts to disquade her by falsely claiming to be a homosexual.

eason 2

In the episode "Shout, Part 2", Liberty gets into an argument with J.T. and then vandalizes a couple of lockers, leading Principal Dan Raditch principal to think that he did it. Liberty later brags to Toby about what she did, but he reveals to her that if J.T. gets in trouble again, his parents are going to send him to private school. " [Note: J.T. is later revealed to reside with his grandmother.] " To prevent that from happening, Liberty quickly confesses that she vandalized the lockers. J.T. is impressed and he even calls Liberty cool for doing what she did.

Later in the season, the two students continue to be friends and help each other on occasion. One such occasion is when J.T. learns that he has a secret talent in sewing class, a class that Liberty can't seem to pass. J.T. helps Liberty out by sewing her projects for her, allowing her to receive an A in the class. As well, J.T. discovers that he's failing his classes, so he turns to Liberty for help. She agrees to help him in exchange for his promise to be her date at the year-end dance.

After an unsuccessful try-out for the girls' hockey team, Coach Daphne Hatzilakos appoints Liberty as the team manager. At first, Liberty despises the job, but then later takes a liking to the position when she becomes captivated in a battle against the boys basketball team to receive funding from Jeremiah Motors for new jerseys. After a tumultuous struggle that involves losing and then regaining her team one more, dealership owner Joey Jeremiah decides to fund both teams.

eason 3

In season 3, Liberty tries to get over her unrequited crush on J.T. by developing a new interest in Sean. Sean showed no interest in Liberty, so he introduced her to one of his friends, Towerz. The couple begin a relationship, but as revealed in "Ghost in the Machine", the two break it off over the summer between seasons 3 and 4.

eason 4

In the episode of "King Of Pain", Liberty had shown an interest in Chris Sharpe. This made Emma jealous, so Emma invites Chris over to prevent him from going on a date with Liberty. After Liberty catches Emma in the gym flirting with Chris, fully knowing that Emma's motive was jealousy, she confronts her about the issue and the two break their friendship.

After the school shooting, Liberty writes a play retelling the story of Dracula, and J.T., head of the drama club, decides to use it for the school play. When principal Mr. Raditch decides that the play is too violent, Liberty and J.T. invent a song of rebellion to sing to the principal. Although only Liberty sings the song in the end (as J.T. decides against it), the two both receive detention. It is there that they share their first kiss, and after that moment, they are a couple.

eason 5

Over the summer, J.T. and Liberty become close and it's apparent that they had sex on several occasions with each other. After an unfortunate incident involving J.T.'s King Sized condom falling off during sexual intercourse, Liberty becomes pregnant. The couple go through some tumultuous times, even breaking up and then reconciling once. Liberty's parents strongly urge Liberty to put the baby up for adoption, something both Liberty and J.T. are against. To try and make their future family work, the couple search for apartments and J.T. gets a job working at a pharmacy. Jay approaches J.T. about stealing prescription drugs for money, and after much consideration, J.T. gives in. Eventually J.T. realizes that what he's doing is wrong and attempts to back out of the deal, but Jay and a friend threaten J.T. into continuing. In a panic, J.T. swallows a handful of pills and overdoses. He later wakes up in the hospital, where he is broken up with by a furious Liberty. J.T.'s irresponsible actions become the catalyst to Liberty's final decision to put the baby up for adoption. Months later, Liberty goes into premature labour and gives birth to a healthy baby boy.

Months after her son was born, Liberty becomes depressed as she began to regret giving him up. She begins to feel worse about the situation when she learns that his new family is moving far away. To deal with the pain, she turns to alcohol. Danny's friend Derek tells Liberty that he was adopted as well and he gives her the idea to give her child a box of personal items to remember her and J.T. by when the baby's family relocates.

eason 6

In the episode "Eyes Without a Face, Part 1", Liberty started to show a vibe of jealousy when she witnessed J.T. asking new girl Mia out for ice cream with Mia's daughter, Isabella. Her jealousy over Mia and J.T. escalated when Liberty told Mia all of J.T.'s dark secrets, putting their relationship in dire straits. During a Student Council meeting, she turned down J.T.'s idea of having a daycare at Degrassi without even hearing J.T.'s pitch, saying that it would only benefit his girlfriend. J.T. finally lashed out at her, reminding her that he supported her throughout her entire pregnancy, even when she gave up the baby that was also his, and accused her of wanting J.T. to be as miserable as she is.

At Liberty's birthday party, Liberty admits to J.T. that she still loves him, but she leaves him when he doesn't reciprocate. Also at Manny's party are two Lakehurst guys come, who are thrown out for trying to cause trouble. Later on, after J.T. realizes that he still loves Liberty, he goes to find her, but finds the Lakehurst guys instead. In a surprise attack, J.T. is stabbed. Liberty finds J.T., dying in the parking lot. Later at the hospital, a doctor explains that while they tried all they could,but they couldn't repair the damages. J.T. died from his injuries.

After J.T.'s death, Liberty bottled up all of her feelings. Liberty, Toby and Mia opened up J.T.'s locker together and went through his things. Mia attempted to take everything from the locker, much to Liberty's disapproval, but Toby wouldn't let her, believing that none of them were ready to deal with what had happened. After Liberty is accused by Mia of being an "robot, a walking, talking computer" for not crying at J.T.'s funeral, Toby defends Liberty and later takes her on a road trip to calm down, which failed after Toby's car broke down only a few minutes from the school. While the car was broken, Liberty and Toby share a moment about J.T., after which Toby kisses Liberty. Toby later apologized for kissing her after being pressed by Manny to 'take back' the kiss. Toby later reveals to Mia that J.T. still loved Liberty, not Mia, and when Liberty hears this she doesn't know what to think and is put out with Toby for not telling her to her face.

eason 7

Liberty gets into a short fight with a student from Lakehurst (later revealed to be Lucas Valieri, the father of Mia Jones's child) while breaking up a fight with him and Danny. After she breaks it up, the Lakehurst thug says that he heard that J.T. was "asking for it" when he got stabbed, which sends Liberty into a rage, only to have the fight broken up by Gavin "Spinner" Mason.

Liberty is declared valedictorian for the Class of 2007. In the season finale, Liberty decides to express her feelings she's been having of Damian, despite the fact that he's already in a relationship with Emma. During their senior prom, whilst everyone else was preparing to leave the dance for the pool, Damian and her share a moment alone and kiss. Manny observes the two departing together and subsequently confronts Liberty at the pool. A jealous Toby, in whom Liberty had confided at the dance, then loudly announces the situation to all present at the pool. Liberty is left distraught in the wake of her friends' anger.

In her valedictory speech, she notes that everyone makes mistakes and essentially asks her friends for forgiveness; she then goes on to remind everyone that one classmate, J.T. did not complete the journey with them. Overcome by emotion at the discussion of J.T., she breaks down and runs out of the ceremony. Emma catches up with Liberty and tells her that she is not ready ready to throw away six years of friendship; by this time, Manny and Toby have arrived and echo Emma. Following the ceremony, the four visit J.T.'s memorial; there, Toby places someone's graduation cap beside J.T.'s portrait, and Liberty moves the tassle to the side, symbolically including him in their graduating class.

Relationships

*Trey "Towerz" Hightower
**Start Up: "Accidents Will Happen, Part 2" (315)
**Broke Up: Summer before "Ghost in the Machine, Part 1" (401)
***Reason: Unknown.
*J. T. Yorke
**First Relationship
***Start Up: "Voices Carry, Part 2" (412)
***Broke Up: "Foolin'" (504)
****Reason: J.T. believes Liberty is too controlling.
**Second Relationship
***Start Up: "Turned Out, Part 1" (507)
***Broke Up: "Turned Out, Part 2" (508)
****Reason: J.T. begins selling drugs to support the baby, then attempts suicide by overdosing Oxycodone.