Wheaton College Professor Charged with Possession of Child Porn

A Wheaton College professor was charged with two counts of aggravated child pornography, DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin announced Thursday. 

Donald Ratcliff, 60, of 1N54 Falcon Trail, Carol Stream was charged with the Class 2 felonies following an undercover operation conducted by the Carol Stream Police Department. He also faces charges of two counts of possession of a firearm without a FOID card and one count of possession of ammunition without a FOID card, according to the DuPage County Jail website.

Ratcliff is scheduled to appear in DuPage County bond court at 8 a.m. Friday in Courtroom 2004, according to a press release from the State's Attorney's Office.

According to Wheaton College's website, Ratcliff is a professor of Christian Education and a faculty member since 2006. 

According to his personal website, Ratcliff's research includes children's spirituality. In a video introduction to an online Children's Spirituality class he taught, Ratcliff said, "Children are important. They are mysterious, sometimes aggravating, often loving, but always important. They are also important to God. So important that Jesus once said people cannot enter his kingdom, without being like a child."

According to a statement from Wheaton College, an administrative leave for Ratcliff is pending.

He also serves on the planning team for a conference hosted by the Society for Children's Spirituality: Christian Perspectives every three years.

La Verne Tolbert, president of the Society for Children's Spirituality: Christian Perspectives, wrote in a statement, "The Society for Children's Spirituality is aware of and saddened by the arrest of Dr. Don Ratcliff.  We have no details about the charges. Our organization is a scholarly organization that shares research on the spiritual development of children.  In this capacity, board members have no direct contact with minors."

Ratcliff served in the organization as a board member, and maintained the society's website. "We are immediately placing him on administrative leave from the board," Tolbert wrote.

As part of their ongoing effort against child pornographers, detectives from the Carol Stream Police Department continuously police the Internet for child pornography. Through the course of these continued efforts, detectives were led to Ratcliff for allegedly having images and videos containing child pornography. The detectives are all members of the Illinois Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, according to the release.

In a statement Berlin said, “The allegations against Mr. Ratcliff are very disheartening. Child pornography is not a victimless crime. The sad truth is that thousands of images depicting child pornography are distributed over the Internet every day. Each one of these photos is a victim of child pornography. I would like to thank the Carol Stream Investigations Special Operations Unit for their ongoing efforts in the battle against child pornography as well as Assistant State’s Attorney Anne Therieau for her work on this case.”

Members of the public are reminded that this complaint contains only charges and is not proof of the defendant’s guilt.  A defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial in which it is the government’s burden to prove his or her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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