Pending Legislation: On May 8, 2024, Peoria Academy Middle School took a field trip to the Illinois State Capitol. During the visit to Springfield, students toured the building and met with Rep. Travis Weaver. The Republican from Peoria had visited Peoria Academy and was impressed with the students’ understanding of the legislative process, as well as the quality of their questions and logic. To prepare for the field trip, students were assigned an essay researching the complexities and implications of a pending bill sponsored by Rep. Weaver. The assignment required students to summarize the bill, describe its pros and cons, and then express their opinion. Here is the essay written by Sommer Jaffer, a Peoria Academy journalism student:

Would you like to be monitored for abuse prevention reasons if you or someone else can’t monitor you? This is what bill HB2998 enforces. The bill states that assisted care living facilities in Illinois may have electronic monitoring and recording to stop and oversee any abuse or violence that may be happening within the facilities. According to the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA), 44% of nursing home residents have reported abuse and 95% of nursing home residents have reported neglect. Neglect and abuse are not appropriate in any situation. Monitoring would be a positive, especially considering these numbers. However, regarding privacy, I don’t think monitoring is fair to people who don’t like being watched.

According to Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, 96% of assisted living facilities struggle with severe staffing shortages. With staffing shortages, the caretakers of the people living in these facilities can’t watch over all of them. So, if abuse or violence is happening within the living facilities, electronic monitoring can help stop it, especially if the caretakers are the ones who are committing the abuse. This is a much safer and more effective way to monitor violence. It helps the people living in the facilities, those who care about them but can’t take care of them, and the employees working there. People don’t ever deserve to be abused and monitoring is a solution that could end this in many places.

This bill isn’t completely without problems. Though this bill is a good idea, I don’t think that it is fair for people who prefer more privacy. I wouldn’t feel comfortable knowing somebody was always watching me. According to senstar.com, privacy concerns are a main problem with surveillance in assisted living facilities. Another problem with this bill is who’s going to be looking at these surveillance cameras. Monitors need to be trustworthy if they are going to be watching this footage. Not only that but what happens if the video somehow gets put online? Nowadays that is easy to do. Many people living in these facilities probably wouldn’t be happy to know they didn’t have as much privacy as they are used to.

A solution to concerns in this bill would be to first ask the opinions of the people living in these facilities. That way you hear from both sides. I think the best way to handle this would be to put the cameras in the main areas. This means not putting cameras in the rooms of people who prefer privacy and would not like cameras in their rooms. This would make it easier for people who enjoy privacy because they are not followed by cameras. This would make it easier for the people who don’t want to be monitored because they can feel safer.

Some people don’t appreciate having cameras on them wherever they are, but other people might prefer it to make them feel safer.

Both of these arguments are valid. It depends on who would want the privacy and who wouldn’t. But I think that it’s mainly up to the people living in the facilities. It would be a great idea to have monitoring in assisted living care facilities mainly for the reason of prevention of abuse. On the other hand, some people do not appreciate being watched wherever they go. That is why I think it’s best for the people living there to decide where they want to be monitored.

— Sommer Jaffer, Peoria Academy Journalism Club