In 2001, Lewis Hamilton was framed guilty after a student in his school was attacked by 6 other students in the toilets. Despite not being involved in the incident, Hamilton was expelled after being wrongly accused of being involved in the attack.
Due to his busy karting schedule, some of his faculty were skeptical of the Briton’s career choices. The Mercedes driver even claimed he had no friends and kept his interests to himself. He often missed classes to participate in karting tournaments and for practice.
He was a target by his teachers who thought the young kid would amount to nothing in life. This caused the 7-time world champion to come in the wrong light on numerous occasions.
Lewis Hamilton recalls unfair expulsion from school that nearly ended his career
Lewis Hamilton stated being expelled from school destroyed his faith in the education system. The incident left him deeply affected as it occurred just months before his GCSEs.
“I was accused of kicking the pupil,” Hamilton wrote. He wrote in his biography, “This was not true. I, like many others, had been hanging around waiting for the next lesson to start and had entered the toilets around the time that the attack was taking place. I was not involved in the attack but knew the boys involved.”
However, his headteacher believed otherwise and excluded him from school along with six other students. Hamilton’s father Anthony and stepmother Linda were called to the school. The driver claims his father was extremely upset with him being involved in the incident.
Hamilton claimed his career nearly ended before it had started because of a case of mistaken identity at my school. He shared, “I walked around in a daze, not really knowing where I was going for a while. I even considered running away and then eventually I went home.”
Hamilton’s family fought to reinstate him in school
Lewis Hamilton said in the weeks following his exclusion, his family challenged the headteacher for mistaken identity in the incident. However, his headteacher maintained his stance and showed no interest in Hamilton’s plea.
He recalled, “When they arrived at the school, the headteacher was not sympathetic to anything they said to him. He maintained that I had kicked the pupil and that I was correctly excluded. I knew I was innocent but he did not appear to be interested.”
However, Anthony Hamilton continued to believe in his son’s innocence. He had arranged private tuition for his son so that he could give his GCSEs. The Mercedes driver said, “It was just typical of my dad; when something is wrong he will go to the ends of the earth to find out the truth.”
The driver’s family wrote letters to the local education authority, their local MP, the Education Secretary, and even the Prime Minister, but they were of no help. Eventually, the Exclusion Appeal Panel heard his case and conducted a thorough investigation. Hamilton was later declared not guilty and was fully reinstated to the school.
However, he lost crucial weeks of studies to prepare for his exams. The Briton said he was forced to give the GCSEs from multiple cities. He was forced to give some of the papers on his own as some schools did not allow him to appear for exams.
Hamilton’s struggles with racism and expulsion inspired him to start his charity, Mission 44, in 2022. The 7x world champion has addressed the high rate of expulsion of Black students in the UK. They are also working to promote more minorities in STEM courses.
