Centennial Teacher Among Victims Of Triple Stabbing In Northampton Twp

WARMINSTER TOWNSHIP, PA — A Centennial School District teacher is among those who were killed in a stabbing this week in Northampton Township, school officials said.

The news was confirmed by Centennial School District Superintendent Abe Lucabaugh during a Tuesday night school board meeting.

Deborah Castiglia, 53, of Doylestown, was a math teacher who had been with the district for 26 years, he said. Castiglia was a math teacher at Klinger Middle School from 1999 until 2018 before moving to William Tennant High School, where she had presently taught.

Her brother, Kevin Casitglia, is facing murder charges in connection with her death, as well as his parents' stabbing deaths. The three were found dead Monday in a home on Heather Road in the Churchville after an hours-long standoff.

"Needless to say, today was a difficult day for the Centennial community," Lucabaugh said. "This afternoon, we met with our faculty at William Tennant High School and also at Klinger Middle School."

"She did so with tremendous care and compassion for her students," Lucabaugh said. "She also gave her time generously as a coach of girls' volleyball and also as a softball coach. This was a very tragic event. It's very difficult to navigate."

Lucabaugh thanked the district's crisis support teams. He said the district has activated its crisis response team and that counseling and support services will be available for staff and students starting on Wednesday at William Tennant High School and Klinger Middle School.

He thanked the Bucks County Intermediate Team for "their guidance and support" for the district.

"We will continue to wrap our community in support," Lucabaugh said. "We are confident that we will be able to address all the issues, but it's going to take time. "When something like this happens, it opens a wide range of emotional responses: Shock, anger, fear, confusion, grief. But we are at the ready to prepare for all of that."

Lucabaugh said the school district extended its condolences and sympathies to the family.