If you can believe it, it’s been just two months since The Age broke the story of a deputy principal sacked at a prestigious Melbourne private school for cutting a student’s hair. Since then, incredibly, almost 50,000 words have been published in Australia on the story.

The Age’s editor Alex Lavelle told readers in the few days after the original story that it had received 400,000 page views. That’s not even to mention coverage on breakfast television, talkback radio and the ABC’s flagship current affairs program 7.30.

The very Melbourne yarn kicked off with The Age’s education editor Henrietta Cook’s story published on March 9, describing the sacking of deputy principal Rohan “Brownie” Brown from Trinity Grammar. Cook’s story described simmering tensions at the school — a debate over whether it was becoming too focused on ATAR scores over a more rounded education. But it was the haircut that really captured attention.

And things really escalated.

Daily Mail Australia and the ABC picked it up that afternoon, and over the following long weekend, stories were published covering the haircut itself, what the haircut-ee thought about Brown’s sacking, what current school captains and vice captains thought, what former school captains and vice-captains thought, the bizarre “smart casual” dress student protest, and calls for principal Michael Davies to be sacked.

It was the following week that the opinion pieces started coming in.

National broadsheet The Australian dedicated part of its editorial on March 14 to the scandal, and the Herald Sun published an opinion piece by a former teacher at the school, with another by a current teacher the next week, when The Age also published an op-ed by an anonymous current teacher.

Henrietta Cook, who wrote the original story, told Crikey she was a little surprised at just how much attention her story got. “I knew it was going to be something that would interest people — there’s always an interest in the working of well-known schools, particularly in Melbourne,” she said. “I didn’t think it would be such an enduring story.”

She said updates were consistently top-rating stories on The Age’s website, and the majority of feedback had been good. “Often with these stories you get a real mixed reaction, people are certainly reading it … but it’s been a really interesting, fun story to follow and it seemed to be the gift that kept giving.”

Pushing the news side of the story along, there were reports on the giant billboard that circled the school protesting Brown’s sacking, the school council decision to reinstate Brown, his presence at a school hockey practice, a blow-by-blow account of his return to the school and, finally (we hope!), Davies’ resignation yesterday.

And aside from the minutiae of the school processes, there were allegations of bullying against Brown, stories on what various people associated with the school made of Brown and the scandal, and questions to the Anglican Church — The Australian published a full story about how the church was not commenting on the matter. And over at the Herald Sun, they tracked down a former student who’d also had his hair cut at school by Brown. Alex Papas, 27, told the Melbourne tabloid: “I turned out just fine — in fact, I am a better person for it.” The story was picked up overseas, too, by The Independent and The Sun.

There were fewer hot takes than you might expect for a story that took so much attention. Academic commentary website The Conversation went for a discussion on “how elite schools are struggling with the pressure to excel”.

The worst take by far, though, was from John Simpson (former member of Scotch College council and current member of Monash University council who wrote about this twice for the Oz and also for The New Daily). Last month, Simpson wrote about student activism in the digital age — he opened by talking about the students from Parkland, Florida, who’ve been campaigning for gun reform after a mass shooting at their school. And then he localises the story (admittedly by saying it’s a “dramatically less significant event”) by talking about the Trinity students’ protest.

Cook said that while the haircut itself, stunts and protests and other details kept the story pushing along, it also brought attention to other issues that affect other schools and students.

“Yes it was about a haircut but it touched on these broader issues,” she said. “I think it did expose quite serious concerns about governance, and there was the power of the parents and students … It’s something every school has been closely watching.”

As to whether Davies’ resignation means it’s all over, Cook said she doesn’t think that word count has stopped just yet. “I think we’re probably all a bit relieved [that the saga was over], but I’m not sick of the story and I think there will be more that will be written.”

NOTE: This story has been updated to correct a quote attributed to Henrietta Cook.