What Are Mackenzie Shirilla's Parents Saying on Recorded Prison Calls?

**Tony Brueski** (0:01)
This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brueski and Robin Drake.

**Tony Brueski** (0:08)
Steve Shirilla's teaching contract at Mary Queen of Peace School was not renewed. The diocese confirmed he won't be returning. That's the father of Mackenzie Shirilla. You've met him in the documentary. He says he wouldn't have resigned anyhow. So, there.
Don't give me that. I wouldn't have signed it anyhow. I'm wondering if that's how that went. Kind of that sort of…

**Robin Drake** (0:34)
Because you can tell they're lying already, right?

**Tony Brueski** (0:35)
Yeah. No. I wouldn't have signed it anyway. I know you are, but what am I? Meanwhile, Natalie Shirilla is on recorded calls telling her convicted daughter she's not an actual criminal and calling the Russo family evil. Oh, good move, mom and dad. Eric Faddis is with myself and Robin Drake breaking down this angle of it. The conversation on the parents has been everywhere this week. Steve went on that Netflix documentary. Defendant convicted killer told the cameras he's fine with his daughter smoking weed and he teaches at a Catholic elementary school. People are split whether on losing his job is fair. He says he doesn't care. He wouldn't have renewed anyhow.
Did he do this to himself?
Was it fair that they said we're not going to renew your contract or does that violate something? Does he have a right to stand up for his daughter the way he has? And it shouldn't affect his employment. He's not the one who did this.

**Eric Faddis** (1:33)
I think he has a basic civil right to stand up for his daughter, but he doesn't have a right to say things that his employer might find abhorrent and that might conclude reflects on that. And they're like, hey, we don't want this guy in our employee anymore, especially if we're talking about a Christian school. Read the room, bro.

**Robin Drake** (1:58)
Read the room, bro.

**Eric Faddis** (2:00)
It's not some alternative arts college in Oregon or something.
It's a Christian school, man. And so even I'm a proponent of marijuana, but God, I can understand how the employer would say, hey, we don't really want our teachers making these public statements in support of what are elicited substances in some places and perhaps in support of a person who was convicted of some serious, unlawful deaths. So I don't think he's got a legal claim against them. No.

**Robin Drake** (2:33)
And also, is it a difference because it is a private school versus a public school?

**Eric Faddis** (2:38)
There is a difference there for sure.
Because largely, the Constitution does not apply to a private school. And so, you know, if it was a public school, he might say, hey, First Amendment, right? And they're punishing me because I exercise that right. And then that would be litigated. Private school, they're not bound by those same strictures, constitutionally or otherwise. So, yeah, it makes a big difference.

**Robin Drake** (3:02)
Read the room, bro.

**Tony Brueski** (3:03)
Yeah, it's like, is he sort of like, dude, marry a queen. She likes it, too. She's good with the pot. I smoke it before we do art classes with the kids. And it's, I mean, I'm a big, I mean, look, I mean, yeah. But it boosts creativity, right? Oh, my God. I mean, you read the room, bro. I think that's the best.

**Tony Brueski** (3:23)
That's the quote of the week right there.

**Tony Brueski** (3:24)
That's the best line of all of this.
He went on a podcast and challenged anyone to show him one piece of evidence. His daughter did this on purpose, while a judge fighting say exactly the opposite of that. And it is a matter of opinion. I mean, it's been litigated, so there is that. But one can certainly have an opinion on this. And there's a level, I agree. I don't think that there is a solid... There isn't a smoking gun here that says, I'm going to go kill my boyfriend and his friend, and I'm somehow going to risk not murdering myself in the process.
I think he's missing the point. That seems to be the biggest thing. I feel like it's all going over the head of mom and dad here in this case. It's... Nobody is arguing necessarily that she sat there and was... Maybe some people are, but I don't think most are, that she's, I'm going to go kill them. They're arguing she's a horrible human being with zero self-control. She's a tornado that was going to end up killing other people or herself at some point in time. And this just happens to be the way that it happened when it went down. Why is that with the greater picture? Because there was no boundaries, because there was no self-control, because there was no direction, because there was no parenting, which falls directly at the hands of mom and dad.