In 1997 Barrett was the Native Hawaiian Affairs reporter for the morning newspaper in Honolulu Hawaii when he began investigating the controversial management of Kamehameha Schools a private co-educational college-preparatory school founded in 1887 by Bernice Pauahi Bishop a Hawaiian princess philanthropist and the great-granddaughter of King Kamehameha I. The Hawaiians-only school formally known as Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate or KSBE was managed by the five trustees of Bishop Estate Hawaii's largest private landowner .