Steve Shirilla, the art and digital media teacher at Mary Queen of Peace School in Cleveland, has been placed on administrative leave after the release of the Netflix documentary "The Crash," the school said.
The move followed renewed attention to the July 31, 2022 crash in Strongsville in which Mackenzie Shirilla was driving at 100 mph and slammed into a brick wall, killing her boyfriend Dominic Russo and their friend Davion Flanagan. In 2023 a Cuyahoga County judge found Mackenzie Shirilla guilty of multiple charges, including murder and aggravated vehicular homicide; she was sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole after 15 years served.
Mary Queen of Peace School said it took action after allegations on social media about one of its staff. "We are investigating allegations made on social media that one of our teachers has demonstrated poor judgement," the school said. "Upon learning of the allegation the school acted immediately and placed the teacher on administrative leave." The school added, "The investigation is ongoing."
The documentary's release pushed the case back into public conversation, and the school said its personnel decision came amid that renewed scrutiny. According to the school’s website, Shirilla is the art and digital media teacher; the administrative leave was announced after the film drew attention to comments he made.
One parent who spoke to a local news outlet defended Shirilla's relationship with students and described the leave as a response to community backlash rather than to any reported action at the school itself. "As a parent I can understand the want to support and protect your daughter, however, I do think the way a lot of this was handled by the parents wasn’t tasteful and some of the light that Mr. Shirilla has been in due to this case and the documentary draws a negative light to our school and is drawing a scary amount of attention to our kids," the anonymous parent said. The parent added, "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 same parent noted the timing of Shirilla's hiring. "At the time that Mr. Shirilla was hired, it was approximately 2 1/2 years before the crash happened, so nobody foreseen that coming at that point in time," the parent said.
The weight of the case is unmistakable: two people died in the July 31, 2022 crash, and the driver was later convicted and given a life sentence with parole eligibility after 15 years. Those figures are the reason the documentary drew attention and why school officials say they moved quickly once allegations surfaced.
But the quick action and the school's public comments expose a tension between protecting students and responding to public outrage. The school framed its response around social media allegations and an ongoing personnel probe. Parents and community members, meanwhile, have pushed different narratives — some defending Shirilla as a respected teacher, others urging accountability tied to the documentary’s revelations.
The release of the Netflix documentary "The Crash" has altered the local fallout from a case that was already resolved in court in 2023. What happens now rests with the school's internal investigation; the school has repeatedly said it acted "immediately" and that the inquiry is continuing. Whether Shirilla returns to the classroom will depend on the findings of that probe and on how the community weighs off-duty comments connected to a high-profile criminal case.
