The Road Ahead: Torn Family Updates Mission Statement
The Burns family is fighting a long hard battle, one they could not endure without your generous support. Their fight is not over. They are now in the midst of a lengthy appeals process represented by the Michigan Innocence Clinic in the Court of Appeals. As such, we anticipate long periods of inactivity in their case with no specific information to report.
Unfortunately, we frequently hear news of families being falsely accused of child abuse by people who work in deeply flawed legal and medical systems. In light of this, the Burns family has requested that Torn Family Trust broaden its principal focus. Torn Family will now pursue strategies to educate the public on the issues of Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) / Abusive Head Trauma (AHT), and lobby to end the injustices surrounding false accusations of child abuse.
We have updated our mission statement to reflect this broader focus and in the near future will re-organize our website. We have also added two new Torn Family Trustees: Ms. Hannah Eckman and Dr. Douglas Smith. Ms. Eckman is a graduate of the University of Michigan Flint with a degree in graphic design. She has been maintaining the Torn Family website. Dr. Smith is a former professor in the College of Medicine, Department of Pathology at the University of Michigan, where he was director of the Transplant Laboratory. His advice and expertise have already been invaluable to Torn Family. We look forward to working with our two new trustees.
Torn Family Trust remains committed to informing supporters and the public at large about the Burns’ case and similar cases. We will also report on legislative and systemic reforms. For those who wish to continue following the Burns’ story, we will provide ongoing updates on the Torn Family Facebook page, as well as on a designated section on this website.
Thank you for your support.
Seek Justice
Our New Mission Statement:
Families are being torn apart by false allegations of Shaken Baby Syndrome (a.k.a. Abusive Head Trauma). Torn Family Trust seeks to educate the public and to lobby for legislative changes to reform the processes that are responsible for these injustices.