In the present unjust context of US schools, many educators face uncertainty about the legitimacy of their issuing punishments, especially when their identity meaningfully differs from that of their students. In this article, we address these doubts by acknowledging distinctive elements of schools to provide helpful distinctions and analyses of the legitimacy of punishments within them. Specifically, we interrogate the role that identity categories such as race and gender play in establishing legitimate punishment within schools, with a particular focus on the case of Black girls attending US schools. We offer a taxonomy of legitimate responses to undesired student behavior, arguing that a particular person in their role within a school might lack legitimacy to punish based upon their identity even while other, related yet more nuanced, behavioral responses remain. In this work, we aim to equip educators with tools to better navigate the options available to them and better understand the significance of their actions in response to student behavior.

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