It has been said that the best way to be kind to bears is to not get too close to them, and a school principal learned just that in a shocking encounter.
On Monday, James Marsh, the headteacher of Zela Elementary School in Summersville, West Virginia, showed off his running skills after coming face-to-face with a black bear while unlocking a dumpster on the school’s grounds.
In a now-viral school surveillance video, Marsh is seen walking over to unlock the trash bin near the building only for a shaggy bear to terrifyingly leap out as he unlatches the cover.
“I didn’t even get to open the lid,” Marsh told WSAZ-TV. “It just popped out of there like a jack-in-the-box. It let out a pretty loud growl or roar actually, and that was about the most intimidating thing of the whole event.”
He added, “I have not been that close to one, and I doubt that many people have,” referring to the four-legged omnivore who can grow up to 880 pounds.
An anti-bear lock had been added to the school dumpster by the state’s Department of Natural Resources after employees had spotted bears in the bin, WSAZ reported.
But the lock didn’t do the trick for this fuzzy intruder.
After Marsh saw the bear, he tapped into his inner Usain Bolt and sprinted away as fast as he could. The bear then climbed out of the dumpster and ran off in the opposite direction.
No one was injured in the incident.
In general, most black bears don’t want to attack humans, according to the National Park Service. Though attacks on people are very rare, they have happened and can result in serious injuries or even death.