It CAN be. But there are many teachers that still give out candy which everyone is making this out to be such a negative thing. And no teachers treats all students the same. It’s human nature. Maybe the girls treated him differently and knew how to manipulate him to get more candy.
But the act of giving candy and treating children different is not grooming by itself. I’m not defending him but defending the profession that needs a better talent base.
Awareness is the best weapon. There is always going to be situations like this because of human nature. I’m not excusing it. We can always to better as parents, classmates, administrators, teachers, etc. But there are always going to predators out there that are really good at disguising themselves. Also, not to mention we were naive years ago and probably at the current time with female teachers.
On the other hand, if he is capable of murdering like he did, who knows what his mind was capable of. That’s what brings a lot of us here.