SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — It was an ABC7 story that went viral 16 months ago.

A Palo Alto teen and computer science prodigy was hired straight out of high school by Google as a PhD-level software engineer.

Yet, just months before, he suffered disappointment after disappointment in the college admissions process after being rejected by 16 colleges, including five UC campuses.

Stanley Zhong had a 4.42 GPA and 1590 out of 1600 on the SATs. He also founded his own document-signing startup and tutors underserved kids in coding. His college rejections and his employment offer from Google became a lightning rod in the national debate over the college admissions process.

RELATED: Bay Area high school grad rejected by 16 colleges reveals how he got Google job

On Feb. 11, Stanley Zhong and his father Nan Zhong filed a new complaint in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, alleging the University of California illegally engages in racial discrimination in its admissions process. The use of race was banned by California voters through Prop 209 in 1996 and affirmed in an unrelated case involving Harvard in 2023.

Nan Zhong joined ABC7 News Anchor Kristen Sze to discuss why they’re suing UC now when Stanley is working in a dream job that top university graduates aspire for, what evidence they’re looking at, and what they ultimately want.

“First of all, in addition to Stanley, there are a lot of Asian American students who actually contacted us about their college admissions stories. How they were rejected by UCs, despite their outstanding qualifications, similar to Stanley’s,” Nan Zhong said. “Evidence number two: we have collected evidence that the UC is using race, in clear violation of the law, in faculty hiring. And to the degree that it’s not only using it, but they’re also knowing it’s illegal, and they’re also hiding the evidence of using it. Evidence number three: we also looked at some of the limited available public data, and there’s a clear suppression of Asian enrollment, despite the strong growth of the Asian community here in California.”

RELATED: Dad of Bay Area teen rejected by colleges but hired by Google calls for admissions transparency

The Zhongs’ suit follows one filed on Feb. 3 by Students Against Racial Discrimination, which alleges UC’s use of holistic admissions–meaning non-academic factors, like extracurriculars and life circumstances–diminishes academic merit and hurts Asian American and white applicants.

ABC7 News reached out to UC for a response. Rachael Zaentz, Senior Director of Strategic and Critical Communications in the Office of the President, issued this statement:

“The University of California has not been served with the filings. If served, we will vigorously defend our admission practices. We believe these to be meritless suits that seek to distract us from our mission to provide California students with a world class education.

Since the consideration of race in admissions was banned in California in 1996, the University of California has adjusted its admissions practices to comply with the law. We stand by our admission policies and our record of expanding access for all qualified students. The UC undergraduate admissions application collects students’ race and ethnicity for statistical purposes only. This information is not shared with application reviewers and is not used for admission.”

Watch the full interview with Nan Zhong in the player above.