I copied someone's code for a project out of pure frustration, is this grounds for expulsion for academic dishonesty?

Hey guys, I'm really frustrated and not sure where else to turn right now. I've been struggling with this team based project for 6 weeks now, and we just received a bad grade on our final submission for the project. We received a 0/100 on our final submission, and now we have to go through an academic misconduct process. We were told not to communicate with each other about the project, and I can't see the grades of my teammates, but here is what happened. <br><br>I decided to post my code on Stack Overflow to ask for help, but I didn't realize that you can't post an edit after you post a question. The edit I made was after I copied someone else's code from Stack Overflow, and used it in my final submission. I didn't realize this would be considered cheating because I gave credit in the comments, but 4 projects ran late, and it was 4am, and I was tired out of my mind. I was in a position where I had to make a stupid decision, and I made one. Everything was going poorly, and we received a bad grade and I decided to take matters into my own hands. <br><br>I'm freaking out over this because I was told its possible that the punishment is expulsion. I'm pretty sure my teammates copied and pasted, and also took a lot of liberties with the lab instructions. I'm sure they did more than I did, and I wish I could tell them, but I'm not allowed to. <br><br>I'm trying to prepare myself for this process, and I'm coming here for some coding advice about why this is such a bad thing. I copied a block comment, edited some of it, and put it in my own code. In coding, isn't it encouraged to take and edit someone else's code? I don't feel like what I did was that bad. I changed a lot of it, and I put it in my own code. I also gave credit, and I told my TA. I'm just in the process of waiting at this point, and I'm just trying to prepare myself for the consequences. I'm freaking out because expulsion is a possible punishment. <br><br>I'm just trying to be prepared for what I did, and I'm trying to understand why what I did was so bad. I don't feel like it was that bad. The lab was out of my league, and I was really struggling, and I was taking a huge risk. I don't feel like expulsion is fair. Everything else was going poorly and it was all I had left.