In the second Catholic school I attended which was much more lenient than the first, any fighting on OR OFF school grounds was grounds for a minimum of in-school detention and possibly expulsion on the first offense(the school reserved that right as they frequently reminded us students and our parents).
And throw in a side of public humiliation in the form of being denounced in front of the entire school.
However, the admins did go through the trouble and effort to differentiate between those who instigate fights and those who were caught up in it because they were attacked. Instigators were considered by school teachers/admins and most parents as 100% culpable for any fights* and they received the punishments while the ones caught up were let off.
Also, considering there were many WWII veterans among our neighbors, there was a tendency for the school admins/parents and older neighbors to analogize those instigators to acting in the same manner as the aggressor Axis powers when they attacked countries without any provocation…including what happened on December 7, 1941 in Pearl Harbor. As such, the idea of punishing both the instigator and the one being attacked in fights was not only considered patently absurd, but grossly unjust to the one being attacked.
- And regarded by school admins/most parents as "bad influences". Another reason why they focused most/all the culpability of fights on them and if they continued to instigate fights, expelled them with extreme prejudice.
Actually, my public magnet HS was much more lenient than the two Catholic elementary schools I attended in many ways.
However, as a selective public magnet HS, they did reserve the right to expel students for violent or behavior which was perceived to endanger the school community. Never saw/experienced any fights/physical assaults in HS.
Any bullying or one-upsmanship was all based on academic/co-curricular performance and perceptions of one’s intelligence.