The family of a white 15-year-old in Berkeley is suing the University of California for discrimination after she was allegedly rejected from a high school internship program meant to support minority students who are interested in healthcare professions.
CHAMPS, a program run by UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals, offers tutoring, healthcare training, SAT prep, and financial aid workshops for high-achieving minority students, according to its website.
The federal lawsuit, filed Tuesday, also names as defendants UCSF Benioff, the president of the UC Board of Regents, the president of the hospital system, and the director of CHAMPS, which stands for Community Health and Adolescent Mentoring Program for Success.
Neither UCSF nor the UC system responded to requests for comment.
Rebecca Hooley, the girl’s mother, is an attorney who works for Contra Costa County. Hooley’s daughter is identified in court filings only as G.H. The Hooleys are represented by the nonprofit Pacific Legal Foundation, a right-leaning libertarian group that says it “defends Americans from government overreach and abuse.”
The lawsuit describes the teen as an exemplary student with a 4.0 GPA and a demonstrated interest in healthcare inspired by her aunt, who is an assisted living nurse. The suit says that after submitting her application, G.H. was informed she’d been selected for an interview.
When the time came, the interviewer “pressed” G.H. to identify her race, and she replied that she was “white,” the suit claims. Days later, she was rejected from the program.
“G.H. would have been accepted and admitted to CHAMPS but for UCSF Benioff’s race-based admissions policy,” the lawsuit claims, adding that the rejection left the teen “humiliated and demoralized.”
The suit says the Hooleys invested a “significant” amount of time and money applying for the program, which could have “boosted her future career prospects.” Instead, the “racially restrictive” program treated their daughter as a “faceless member of her race.”
When asked whether the Hooleys were aware before G.H. applied that CHAMPS is intended to serve minority students, a spokesperson for the Pacific Legal Foundation said race “should not have mattered in whether she could participate in this opportunity.”
The Hooleys are asking the U.S. District Court to declare that CHAMPS violates the 14th Amendment and seek unspecified “compensatory damages.”