Steve Shirilla will not be returning to his teaching job at Mary Queen of Peace School, the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland confirmed Wednesday.

CLEVELAND — Steve Shirilla, the father of convicted Strongsville killer Mackenzie Shirilla, will not be returning to his teaching job at Mary Queen of Peace School in Cleveland.

The Catholic Diocese of Cleveland confirmed the news of Steve Shirilla’s employment status Wednesday afternoon. Last week, a family member told 3News that he had been placed on leave from his duties as an art and digital media at Mary Queen of Peace, with the diocese saying at the time that it was “investigating allegations made on social media that one of its teachers has demonstrated poor judgement.”

“Catholic school personnel decisions are the purview of each school in the Diocese of Cleveland. Due to privacy considerations, neither the schools nor the Diocese ordinarily discuss personnel issues publicly,” the diocese said in a statement Wednesday. “However, we can confirm that Mr. Steve Shirilla will not be returning to Mary Queen of Peace School.”

Shirilla’s leave and eventual departure from Mary Queen of Peace came in the wake of the release of the Netflix documentary “The Crash,” which detailed the fatal 2022 car wreck that led to Mackenzie Shirilla’s conviction for the murders of her boyfriend Dominic Russo and their friend Davion Flanagan. Shirilla is currently serving a sentence of 15 years to life for the incident, and the film features an interview with her from prison as well as a sit-down with both her parents.

Though the diocese did not specify what the accusations of “poor judgement” entailed, both Steve and Natalie Shirilla came under scrutiny following the documentary’s release. In particular, Steve was criticized for comments made during his interview where he appeared to downplay Mackenzie’s marijuana use.

Mackenzie’s parents have consistently maintained she is innocent of murder, claiming she suffered a medical episode that led to the crash. They have continued to appeal her convictions to various courts.

“Show me one piece of evidence — one — that says she did this on purpose. Show it to me,” Steve Shirilla said in an exclusive May 2025 interview with 3News. “Then she’s right where she belongs and she’s guilty of it. But there isn’t any. There’s no evidence [of] what was going on in that car other than information they gleamed from the black box information.”