There is a big difference between accidentally doing something, realizing quickly that you did it, and correcting it...not to mention only causing a minor problem for less than a dozen people...

...and intentionally pushing campus-wide infrastructure really hard (mostly because something isn't happening as fast as you would prefer), breaking the entire campus network (of a school with 7,000 students), and then proudly bragging that you broke that infrastructure.

...and then proudly bragging about that...

This kid has a huge ego that is going to get him into a lot of trouble some day when he swings his dick on a network where people are Not Amused.

I'm going to guess his next run-in will be at an internship or his first job, and he'll get fired.

Getting hauled into the dean's office and being told he'd lost the privilege to do any network 'investigating' outside of direct supervision in a pre-approved academic project would do a great job of correcting the inflation level of his ego and keep him from doing the same thing later where the people who run it are Not Amused and there are serious consequences.