Second Suit Charges Bias at School : Van Nuys: Former headmaster says he was fired because the institution’s owner thought he was black.

An exclusive Van Nuys preparatory school already being sued for racial discrimination was sued again Monday, this time by a former headmaster who is white but says he was fired because the school’s owner thought he was black.

Dale Goodman, in a lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Van Nuys, is seeking more than $10 million in damages from the Fukushima High School of Japan and its American subsidiary, the Stratford Preparatory School on Sepulveda Boulevard.

Goodman said the school’s Japanese owner, Motoaki Yamamori, had him fired in September, 1989, after Yamamori visited his home during a trip to the United States, met Goodman’s adoptive father and wife--both of whom are black--and assumed that he too was black.

As a result, he alleges, he has since suffered “damage to his reputation and earning capacity, humiliation, emotional distress and mental anguish.”

“I’ve been humiliated,” Goodman, 45, said in an interview. “I want to clear my name.”

Bookkeeper Lani Rey, a school spokeswoman, said she had no comment because she was unaware that the lawsuit had been filed.

“All I know is there is no discrimination here,” Rey said. “I’m Latin--Mexican--and they’ve treated me well.”

Rey referred calls to lawyer Gerard C. Mogab, who also had no comment.

The school has shut down, at least temporarily, since The Times reported on the first lawsuit in July.

In that case, Stratford founding director Eizo Masuda sued the school for $1.1 million, alleging Yamamori fired him in February, 1991, for refusing to “perform illegal actions,” such as denying admission to black and Salvadoran students. That suit is pending.

Since it opened in early 1989, the small, expensive school has attracted the sons and daughters of many wealthy Southern Californians on the premise that they would mingle with Japanese exchange students and learn their customs.

But Masuda alleges that Yamamori had become fearful that too many black and Latino students would scare away the Japanese students, who studied under a separate curriculum, and ordered him to not enroll any more.

School officials denied the charges at a news conference, but released statistics showing that enrollment of minorities had dropped sharply during the school’s three years of operation.

Masuda also has alleged in interviews that Yamamori ordered him to fire Goodman after meeting his family and assuming that he was black.

The Japanese owner was convinced that it was Goodman who was recruiting “so many blacks,” Masuda said.

Goodman alleges that he was fired soon after that visit, despite having a good relationship with school officials in the three months that he had worked at Stratford.

Since then, he alleges, he has had to substitute teach because he hasn’t been able to get a full-time job, or even a part-time job similar to the one at Stratford, because potential employers suspect that he was fired for doing something wrong.

“This has been hard to explain, and to accept,” Goodman said. “It’s come up in job interviews.”

Goodman said he surmised what he believes is the reason he was fired only after Masuda’s lawsuit was publicized.

Kenneth Griffin, Goodman’s lawyer, said people can be sued for racial discrimination even if the victim is white. Carol Sobel, senior staff counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles, said state and federal civil rights laws do cover violations based on intent, no matter the skin color of a victim.

Although Goodman was let go at the end of a three-month probationary period that was written into his contract, he said he has grounds to sue.

“You may fire someone because they don’t have the bubbly personality you want,” he said, “but you can’t fire someone just because they’re black.”