A video shows the moment a black bear pops out of a dumpster and sends a West Virginia school principal running

• A video shows a terrified West Virginia principal coming face-to-face with a black bear.
• James Marsh was opening a dumpster when the bear popped its head out, sending him running.

A principal in West Virginia was taken by surprise when he opened a dumpster and found himself face-to-face with a black bear.

A surveillance video shows James Marsh removing a steel bar and opening the dumpster at Zela Elementary School in Summersville when the bear pops its head out.

Marsh runs from the dumpster, and the bear jumps out and heads away in the opposite direction.

"I didn't even get to open the lid," Marsh told local outlet WASZ 3. "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."

"I think both of us were equally surprised," he said. "When you're that close, they don't seem that friendly."

Marsh, who has been principal at the school for five years, said that he immediately retrieved the security footage to show the staff and students.

"The students at the school, they wanted to see it, and I showed it to all of them," he said. "They thought it was just hilarious. I had a couple of little girls tell me when you see a bear, you're not supposed to run."

This isn't the first time the bear has been sighted at the school. Marsh told local outlet West Virginia MetroNews that the school had begun locking the dumpster and securing it with a steel bar in order to keep the bear out.

However, the animal found a way to get inside the dumpster again despite their best efforts.

"He was strong enough to take one paw and lift that metal bar up, and he simply crawled in, he wiggled his way in," Marsh told the outlet.

"The footage showed that he had done that repeatedly. I've had people ask me if he was locked in there. No. He could come and go as he pleased."