By Anna Menta

Mackenzie Shirilla’s father, Steve Shirilla, has been placed on leave at his place of employment following backlash to his interview in Netflix’s The Crash documentary, which details the 2023 criminal case in which Mackenzie Shirilla was convicted of murder, following a deadly car crash in Strongsville, Ohio.

In an off-camera interview with Cleveland’s 19 News, Shirilla told reporters that he was put on administrative leave from his job as an Art/Digital Media teacher at the Mary Queen of Peace School in Cleveland, Ohio while the school conducts an investigation. He added that he was upset with how the documentary was edited, and said parts of his interview were edited out.

In a statement given to Entertainment Weekly, the school said that administrators were “investigating allegations made on social media that one of its teachers has demonstrated poor judgement. Upon learning of the allegation, the school acted immediately and placed the teacher on administrative leave. The investigation is ongoing. The health and wellbeing of its students are among the highest priorities for Mary Queen of Peace School, and its leadership team takes all allegations of poor judgment very seriously.”

Though the statement didn’t specify what, exactly, the school considered to be poor judgement, many viewers of the documentary expressed disbelief and outrage at Shirilla’s parents’ interviews featured in the film.

When asked about their 17-year-old-daughter moving in with her almost-20-year-old boyfriend, Dominic Russo—whom she had been dating since she was 14, and he was 17—Steve Shirilla said, “Even though she was 17, we felt she was mature enough to do that.”

Later, when asked about his daughter’s near-daily marijuana use, Steve Shirilla replied, “I knew she smoked dope. I don’t have a problem with her smoking dope. I don’t have a problem with me smoking it, I don’t have a problem with you smoking it. If you’re going to take a drug, that’s the one I believe you should take. It’s better than alcohol. It’s better than all the other crap. She’s not shooting up.” (Adult marijuana use has been legal in Ohio since 2023, but it should be noted that the crash was in 2022, and Mackenzie was not a legal adult at the time.)

Tim Troup, the prosecutor in Mackenzie’s case, suggests to viewers that Mackenzie’s parents excused and enabled her bad behavior, including documented incidents of “disrespect to teach and fellow students,” Troup said. “You just get a general picture of someone who does not have a lot of adult oversight.”

Troup’s comments are inter-cut with an interview with Shirilla’s parents, recalling a time Mackenzie had been suspended from school, and her father had to come pick her up. “I looked at my daughter, and she’s sobbing,” Steve Shirilla said. “I go, ‘Did you do it?’ She looked at me and goes, ‘No.’ And I know when my daughter lies. I go, ‘Good enough for me. Let’s go.’ And I walked her out.”

Mackenzie’s mother later adds, “She wasn’t a bad kid. She didn’t need to be disciplined a whole lot.”

An anonymous parent of a student at Mary Queen of Peace School spoke in Steve Shirilla’s defense, telling Cleveland’s 19 News that he was beloved and respected by the students. “The administrative leave he was placed on was not for actions he has done at the school itself and was as a result of the backlash of the community,” the anonymous parent said.

Directed by Gareth Johnson, The Crash walks viewers through the criminal case of a 2022 car crash in Strongsville, Ohio. The driver, 17-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla, was driving her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and his friend, Davion Flanagan, home from a friends house in the early hours of the morning, when she crashed the car into a brick building, driving over 90 miles per hour. Dominic and Davion died in the crash. Mackenzie survived.

After toxicology reports revealed Shirilla did not have a significant amount of alcohol in her system, police began to investigate the case as a murder. In 2023, a judge, Nancy Margaret Russo, concluded that the car crash was premeditated. Shirilla was found guilty of 12 felony charges, including two counts of murder. She is now serving a 15-to-life prison sentence at the Ohio Reformatory for Women.

In The Crash, Shirilla’s parents say they believe their daughter is innocent, and will continue to try to fight for her release.