An Apalachee High School student processing the death of his algebra teacher, Christina Irimie, penned an emotional and heartfelt rap about her and the other three victims fatally shot inside his school earlier this month.
Isaac Sanguma, a junior at the school in Barrow County, shared the musical tribute, titled “Forever Irimie” on his TikTok just more than a week ago. As of Thursday afternoon, it has raked in a whopping 14 million views, 2.6 million likes and tens of thousands of comments.
“Another mother lost to her baby. I’m sending prayers to them kids up in Grady,” he raps. “It could have been me. I’m glad the Lord saved me. I gotta be strong. Can’t let the devil break me.”
At another point, Sanguma says: “I won’t see Ms. Irimie for a while and I can’t cut this trauma…I know Ms. Irimie wants me to go harder.”
On Sept. 4, freshman Colt Gray opened fire inside Apalachee High School with an AR-style rifle, allegedly gifted to him by his father for Christmas. He fatally shot Irimie, another math teacher Richard Aspinwell and two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, before he surrendered to a school resource officer.
He was taken into custody without further incident and charged with four counts of murder.
Sanguma in his caption recalled seeing Irimie the day of the deadly violence, writing that she had the “fattest smile on her face with her little dimples.” He added that she watched him walk into class and checked in with him to make sure he was doing well.
“Man I wish I could go back and give her a hug,” Sanguma said. “I never thought that was gonna be my last time seeing her smile and speaking to her.”
When asked why he wrote the rap, the teen told Atlanta News First that he was initially hesitant to do so, adding that he was worried people would think it was attention-seeking. In the end, though, music has always been his outlet.
“I just want the violence to stop,” he said.
