Kenosha Reporter

Amber Infusino is the Kenosha County chairperson for Moms for Liberty.

Over the past few years, Infusino and the parents rights advocacy group has been making waves on the local political scene since local community members banded together to challenge public policy during the COVID-19 era as pursued by the Kenosha Unified School District and others.

“Covid restrictions were, that's what kind of catapulted me into starting the local chapter,” Infusino said on Buff TV. “We just had our first board meeting last night, actually the last board meeting before school starts in session. And COVID protocols are standing on the agenda. So every board meeting, they will address that and deem what is going to be appropriate for us. We're very vocal. It's been quite a busy year with the school boards, many news stations, many news articles written about us just for attending a school board.

Radio host Matt Buff and Amber Infusino | Video screenshot from The Buff Show

“I never thought in a million years that being part of a productive school would be such a backlash thing for anybody. We want parent participation. The school boards weren't very happy to see us at each meeting, but we packed the room. We looked at agendas. We motivated our members to show up at the meetings. We wanted to make sure that they knew that we aren't this band of traveling anti-mask moms that they put on us. We have many things that we want to participate in with the school board.

“We should work with the school board to make sure that our children have academic excellence. It's very basic. It shouldn't be arguments. We shouldn't be tossed out of meetings, articles, false articles written about us slandering. We know our truth. We're moms. We're involved in what happens with our children. I have two adult children and a now a senior and then three grandchildren and one on the way. I'm not going to sit by and watch any of this. That's happening idly. The gender affirmations, the CRT, the inappropriate curriculum. As a parent, I know I have rights. They're inherent. They're given to me by my creator. And the school board does not assign them or take them away from me. Those are my rights and I will make sure that I'll stand up and I'll motivate others to do the same thing.”

Infusino said she is not participating in fad culture regarding gender dysphoria being promoted in many local schools.

“Absolutely, absolutely, I'm not participating in that. That is – you want to call yourself whatever you want, I'm going to call you by your name,” Infusino said. “That's what I was taught, to be appropriate. I'm not going to identify as whatever you identify. If you're a growing adult, you do you. Don't come after our children.

“Don't try teaching our children that they can be a boy. They can be a girl. You can't. It's very basic. And again, it's another conversation where I'm shaking my head that we're even having these conversations. And I am actually personally working with that in my own family. In the past year, I've been fighting for other people's children, people that I didn't even know, school districts that we weren't even a part of. But we had members in that district. Well, now it's hitting home and it's hit my family. So now I'm even more motivated to stop the madness.”

In July 2022, Infusino won the Penelope Barker Award for Organizing.

“From petitioning to driving to campaigning, to doing anything she possibly could until she was so tired that she would just collapse at the end of the night," said a presenter of the award. "Our friend Amber Infusino was our Penelope Barker. There's no doubt in our minds that if Penelope Barker were alive today she would see Amber as an equal, as maybe even a twin. And we couldn't agree with her more."

The group’s work has led to the successful political ascendance of Wisconsin Assemblywoman Amanda Nedweski, who was seated this year. 

Nedweski is co-chair of the Moms for Liberty. Earlier in 2022, she was also elected to Kenosha County Board of Supervisors. The Kenosha chapter of Moms for Liberty once reported 300 dues-paying members.

Moms for Liberty has pushed for changes in local schools, and in 2021 mounted an unsuccessful campaign to unseat School Board President Yolanda Adams. Adams was reelected in 2022. 

“Moms for Liberty is a national parent organization with chapters in 29 states and 100 counties, and currently has over 20,000 members and is growing every day,” according to the group's website.

“Our primary mission is to hold officials accountable for decisions affecting our children and families. This mission transcends political ideology by putting children and families ahead of politics. When officials cannot be held accountable or refuse to engage with constituents on matters related to our children, we work to replace them with individuals who will keep all politics out of our schools, just as we are doing with the effort to recall Ms. Adams, the current president of the KUSD school board. In addition to the recall, we have recruited several seriously motivated parents to replace hyper-partisan school board members."