“I can’t believe people would go that far”: Mackenzie Shirilla’s dad spoke out in fear after his daughter’s recorded conversation with her mother became public

Mackenzie Shirilla, Steve Shirilla.Credit : Netflix (2)

Mackenzie Shirilla’s father, who was put on administrative leave from his teaching job following comments he made in the Netflix documentary The Crash, believes he will be unemployed soon.

When asked on podcast “True Crime This Week” if he was looking for a job, Steve Shirilla said he doesn’t know “if I have a job yet.”

“I’m guessing that I’m not going to,” he said in the interview posted to YouTube. “My contract’s up in June. So, I would hope that they’ll pay me through June. They’re doing some sort of investigation.”

Steve said he believed the investigation had to do with the documentary that was released on May 15.

“You know, this could have been over in a conversation, you know?” Steve said. “That’s got to be the biggest knee-jerk overreaction that you could ever imagine. I don’t know why the school’s not backing me up. That’s not very Catholic. Where’s the compassion, the love, the understanding that they put out to everybody?”

According to 19 News and WKYC, Steve was removed from his job as an art and digital media teacher at Mary Queen of Peace School in Cleveland, Ohio following comments he made about his daughter in the documentary.

Mackenzie, now 21, was convicted in August 2023 of double murder in connection with the deaths of her 20-year-old boyfriend Dominic Russo, and their friend, 19-year-old Davion Flanagan.

She is currently serving two concurrent 15-years-to-life prison sentences, with eligibility for parole in 15 years.

Prosecutors alleged the teen intentionally crashed her car into a brick wall at nearly 100 mph in Strongsville, Ohio in July 2022 after her relationship with Russo reportedly became strained.

In the documentary, Steve maintained his daughter’s innocence and defended her against allegations from former classmates who accused her of bullying. He also discussed her marijuana use.

“I don’t have a problem with her smoking dope,” he said in the documentary. “If you’re going to smoke a drug, that’s the one I believe you should take.”

Steve later told TMZ in a story published on May 19 that he was not promoting marijuana use, but instead explained he could not control his daughter’s choices.

“I wasn’t in support of marijuana or wasn’t saying I’m smoking marijuana,” he shared, per the outlet. “What I was saying is that who am I to say who can smoke and who can’t smoke? Now, I never allowed my daughter to smoke marijuana.”

He added, “How was I stopping her? You know, she was … I couldn’t lock her up in her room. I’m not quite sure why there’s a problem with what I said. It was never, ‘Hey, everybody go smoke marijuana.’”

Following the release of The Crash, the school emailed parents to let them know that a teacher had been placed on administrative leave following allegations of “poor judgment,” 19 News reported.

“We want every parent and family to know that the safety, wellbeing, and trust of our students remain among our highest priorities,” the email said, per the outlet. “We take all student concerns seriously and are committed to responding promptly and responsibly whenever concerns are brought forward.”

PEOPLE reached out to Mary Queen of Peace School for comment after Steve was placed on administrative leave, but did not immediately hear back.

In recent months, Mackenzie’s attorneys filed an appeal with the Ohio Supreme Court, saying “there is medical evidence” that she “suffered from a pre-existing medical condition that could have caused her to black out while driving.”

According to the filing, her attorney at the time did not adequately investigate this and did not try to secure expert testimony.

The Ohio Supreme Court has not yet commented whether or not it will consider her appeal.