Atlanta Music category interest

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - A 16-year-old Apalachee High School student turned to his love of music to help cope with the deadly school shooting that happened two weeks ago.

“I felt free after I wrote the song. It was like something weighing on my chest that I needed to let out,” Isaac Sanguma said.

He said one of the four people killed at the school was his algebra teacher, Cristina Irimie. So, he wrote a song called “Forever Irimie” to honor her and the other victims.

“At first, I didn’t want to make a song about this because everybody was going to be like, ‘Oh, you’re just doing this for attention,’” Sanguma said. “Then my mom was going to put me into therapy, and I was like, ‘Mm-mm,’ and music has just always been a way of expressing my feelings.”

Isaac has been writing and recording music for about seven years now, and his latest work was inspired by a teacher he loved, one who he said was motivational and supportive.

“I didn’t really just make this song for her. It was for all the victims,” Sanguma said. “You see stuff like this on the news, feel bad for a couple of seconds, and you continue on with your life. But, you know, this really affected somebody’s life, somebody’s family.”

The song “Forever Irmie” has already amassed more than 2 million likes on TikTok so far, and he hopes he can impact just one person with this message.

“I just want the violence to stop,” Sanguma said.

FULL COVERAGE: Apalachee High School shooting