A man who worked as an educational assistant at a junior high school in Truro, Nova Scotia is facing charges for allegedly having inappropriate contact with a student on a social networking site.

Police say the victim in question is under the age of 16, but the accused says he is innocent.

"It's a sad situation because a lot of things can be misconstrued," says Todd Canton. "And it certainly was never my intention to hurt anybody."

Canton, 53, worked as an educational assistant for 13 years, spending time with children who need extra support in school on a daily basis.

Now he is facing charges of luring a child over the Internet and invitation to sexual touching.

He says he doesn't understand why he's being charged because he hasn't done anything wrong.

"I don't own a videogame. I don't ever frequent the skate park, or anywhere where young people hang out," he says.

But Truro Police Chief David MacNeil says an investigation was launched after a complaint was filed against Canton in relation to indecent conduct on a social networking site with a student.

A spokesperson with the Chignecto-Central Regional School Board says the board conducted its own internal investigation as soon as the concern was raised.

Carolyn Pierce also says the employee in question no longer works for the board and that it's too soon to say if he will ever get his job back. She declined to discuss the nature of the concern and would not say whether Canton was fired, or if he resigned.

But Canton says things have been "blown way out of proportion."

"I believe that the school board did exactly what they thought they should do, take me away from the situation so that nobody is at risk. Not me and not them."

Canton says he decided to attend the child & youth at risk program at the Nova Scotia Community College because he had a difficult childhood. His dad died when he was 11 years old.

"I struggled as a teen and I thought, wouldn't it be nice to take that negative and turn it into a positive and see if I could apply anything that I've ever been through to make their journey a little easier."

He says he has worked with roughly 7,000 children throughout his career as an educational assistant and this is the first time he has had a problem.

"I'm the first person to cheer someone up," he says. "I believe that I'm the first one to reach out and say ‘everything's going to be OK. Don't give up.' And now I kind of need someone to stand up for me."

As for the details of the case, Canton was hesitant to discuss exactly what did or didn't happen because the case is before the courts.

He is due to appear in court February 15.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell