Steve Shirilla, the father of Mackenzie Shirilla, has spoken publicly after he was placed on leave from his teaching role following his appearance in the Netflix documentary, The Crash.
Shirilla has been on administrative leave from Mary Queen of Peace School in Cleveland, where he is reported to have worked as an art and digital media teacher.
The Netflix film revisits the case involving his daughter, who faced a murder charge after a 2022 crash that killed her boyfriend Dominic Russo and their friend Davion Flanagan.
In an interview with TMZ, Shirilla addressed both the school’s decision and the backlash sparked by remarks shown in the documentary about marijuana.
In the documentary, viewers are told Mackenzie used marijuana while she was a teenager. One clip shows Steve commenting on her cannabis use: “I don’t have a problem with her smoking dope. If you’re going to smoke a drug, that’s the one I believe you should take.”
The line drew criticism online, with some accusing him of excusing drug use.
Discussing the reaction, he told TMZ that the documentary excerpted his comments and removed context. He said: “That is part of a longer answer… I can’t remember what the question was because the documentary people had interviewed us for two days straight and then came back and did more interviews so there was a lot of questions answered.
“My answer wasn’t in support of marijuana, it wasn’t saying, I’m smoking marijuana. What I was saying was, who am I to say who can smoke and who can’t smoke. I never allowed my daughter to smoke marijuana.
“How was I stopping her, I couldn’t lock her up in a room, I’m not quite sure where there’s a problem with what I said. It was never, ‘hey, everyone go and smoke marijuana’.
“I don’t understand why the documentary felt the need to put that in there. I don’t know what the relevance was to my daughter and this accident she was in.”
He also said he didn’t know she had been smoking while inside the vehicle. According to Steve, he repeatedly told her not to use marijuana, but argued he couldn’t monitor her constantly.
He told TMZ: “I’m not with my daughter all the time, all I can do is tell my daughter, don’t do it. I told her many times, I had no idea she was smoking in the car like that, that was new to me.
“I couldn’t stop her, am I supposed to lock her up in a room?
“I had no idea she was driving and smoking… if I’d known I would have had a huge issue about it. I didn’t know, I don’t know what else to tell you.”
Steve said he wasn’t certain whether the decision to place him on leave was connected to his parenting, his public defense of his daughter, or both. He claimed the school received a number of calls from parents, and that administrators opted to suspend him while they review the situation.
He added: “I would hope they would support me like I’ve supported that school for the past seven years,”
“If the diocese want to test me every day they can test me and I won’t have marijuana in my system.”
Separately, Cleveland 19 News reported that families were notified by email about the teacher’s leave. The message reportedly opened with: “We are investigating allegations made on social media that one of our teachers has demonstrated poor judgement.”
The email stated that the teacher was placed on administrative leave after the allegation surfaced and that an investigation is ongoing. Parents were also told the school’s top priority remains “the safety, wellbeing, and trust of students”.
The statement added that the school was limited in what it could disclose “during an active personnel investigation,” but that it would share more updates when possible.
In a further statement, Mary Queen of Peace School said: “Administrators at Mary Queen of Peace School in Cleveland are 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.”