normally my sch has some sort of tribunal...whereby the students caught copying would have to attend etc ..and they can even be represented by their respective lawyers... plagiarism is treated very very seriously in my sch at least.. but still, the punishment meted out is stil very dependent on the severity.. ie if one copy pasted a short section from a cliff notes/sparknotes without citing it, the student would be issued a warning or the most, receive a failing grade for that subject.