Professor Faces Probe for AIDS Comments : Bias: L.A. City College student with the virus says he was threatened with ban from class.

Los Angeles City College officials are considering whether to take disciplinary action against a professor accused of telling an HIV-infected student--in front of a crowded classroom--that he was not sure he would allow the student to remain in the class.

In a grievance filed with the college, Wayne Karr, 37, alleged that, with nearly 60 students listening, political science professor Don J. Wilson said he was concerned about contracting the AIDS virus by handling Karr’s papers and needed a week to decide whether Karr could remain enrolled.

“In essence, he told people that I could give them AIDS by my presence there in the class,” said Karr, a former clothes buyer who was found to have the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, in 1986. “It was the most humiliating, degrading, embarrassing experience of my life.”

College Acting President Jose L. Robledo has publicly apologized to Karr and said campus officials are investigating the professor’s Sept. 19 comments to see if disciplinary action is warranted.

Robledo refused to comment on the likelihood of disciplinary action against Wilson, saying the investigation is just beginning. But he said that based on his own interview with the professor, he has concluded that Wilson’s remarks violated college policy and federal law, which prohibit discrimination on the basis of a medical condition.

Robledo said Wilson told Karr he “would have to think about his status in the class. That is simply not allowable.”

Wilson acknowledged in an interview that he raised concerns about handling Karr’s papers, and told Karr in front of the class that he wanted a week to consider the matter.

But he said he did not mean to imply that Karr would not be allowed to remain in the class.

“I wanted to . . . talk to my doctor and get a full understanding of the whole implications,” Wilson said. “At no time did I ever challenge or discuss his status in the class. Technically, there was nothing I could do. He was legally enrolled.”

However, Karr contends that Wilson explicitly said he had to think about whether to let him remain in the class.

Wilson said he has since consulted medical professionals who told him he could not contract HIV by handling papers.

According to accounts given by Karr and Wilson, the subject of Karr’s illness arose when Karr arrived late to an over-enrolled class and was told he could not stay because of his tardiness. Karr, who was preregistered, said he offered a doctor’s note as an excuse, but that Wilson challenged him, saying, “You don’t look sick to me.”

That was when Karr announced to Wilson and the class that he had AIDS. Karr said he had no qualms about making the announcement in front of others.

The incident provoked an angry response from the gay activist group Queer Nation, which burst into Wilson’s class the following week to conduct an AIDS teach-in aimed at informing the professor and his students how the AIDS virus is transmitted.

To prevent further such disturbances, college officials have separated the professor and the student by dividing Wilson’s class into two sections--one of which will be taught by a different teacher.

Karr graduated from the two-year college as class salutatorian in June and had enrolled in the class to fill a requirement for transfer to a four-year university. He said administrators originally suggested that he take another course but that he refused because it was the responsibility of the college to find him a different teacher.

He has also filed a complaint with the city attorney’s AIDS/HIV anti-discrimination unit, which enforces the city’s anti-discrimination law, Karr said. An attorney with the unit said office policy prevented him from commenting on whether the complaint is under investigation.

Robledo said he has established a task force to evaluate the college’s AIDS education efforts and to consider whether the college staff should be required to attend AIDS awareness seminars.

“The fact that something like this could happen on campus speaks to the need for continued AIDS education,” Robledo said.