I am not a lawyer but the student's defense is akin to "Ain't no rules says a dog can't play basketball" from airbud. There are clear rules against plagiarism,

I am not a lawyer but the student's defense is akin to "Ain't no rules says a dog can't play basketball" from airbud. There are clear rules against plagiarism, and the student copied stuff verbatim from an online source without any citations.