■ Districts jettison school police officers amid protests.

Portland, Ore. — An increasing number of cities are rethinking the presence of school resource officers as they respond to the concerns of thousands of demonstrators — many of them young — who have filled the streets night after night to protest the death of George Floyd.

Portland Public Schools, Oregon’s largest school district, on Thursday cut its ties with the Portland Police Bureau, joining other urban districts from Minneapolis to Denver that are mulling the fate of such programs. Protesters in some cities, including Portland, have demanded the removal of the officers from schools.

Floyd, who was handcuffed and prone on his stomach, died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest on May 25.

Minneapolis suspended its school resource officer program on Tuesday. Districts in St. Paul, Minn., and Denver are considering doing the same. Protesters in Charlottesville,

Va., have made the end of the school resource officer program in their district one of their demands.

Other cities were looking closely at the future of their programs.

In Denver, school board member and protest leader Tay Anderson said Friday that he wants the 18 uniformed police officers assigned to the city’s

middle and high schools to be replaced with nurses, counselors and staff members who specialize in resolving conflicts in the classroom without traditional punishments, such as expulsion or suspension. The district’s own public safety officers would remain and would call for help from police when needed, he said.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said Thursday that he would also discontinue using school resource officers in two smaller metropolitan districts under a program that in total costs the city $1.6 million a year and has been in place for more than two decades. The three districts have a combined student population of nearly 53,000, with more than 49,000 in Portland schools alone.

Having the officers in high schools has been a touchy topic for several years in this liberal city. Students have protested in recent years for an end to the program.