Sweetwater Elementary School has been closed for the day after Port Orange Police said the assistant principal was attacked early Friday morning during a security sweep of the school grounds.
It happened around 6:30 a.m. at the school, on Victoria Gardens Boulevard, as Assistant Principal Adrian Bronson was conducting a required daily sweep before the school opened.
That, police said, was when a man attacked him without warning, punching Bronson, 40, in the face and attempting to slash him with a box cutter. Bronson's shirt was cut, but he was otherwise not injured by the box cutter.
Bronson got a black eye from the initial punch, though police said Bronson did not require medical treatment.
Bronson described his attacker as a white male with a "transient-like" appearance, with a scruffy beard and wearing a green jacket. Police said the man ran into a wooded area west of the school campus after the attack.
Police have begun searching the area with K-9 police dog. They said the search could take some time, since the suspect ran into a large, dense wooded area.
"It was our recommendation to the school to close for the day, only because of the time it is going to take to check all of the woods with our K-9s," said Port Orange Assistant Police Chief Wayne Miller.
Volusia County School District spokeswoman Nancy Wait said security sweeps like the one Bronson was conducting were standard procedures put in place following the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut last year.
"Right now, our procedure ever since Sandy Hook is to make sure all of our doors are locked, even when school is in session," Wait said Friday. "He was just going around making sure campus was secure."
Police said there was no verbal exchange between Bronson and the suspect, and the man did not take any items from the assistant principal.