The driver of a Panther Valley School District bus who police said slammed her brakes on injuring middle school students, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Carbon County court to 24 counts of endangering the welfare of a child. But the plea almost didn’t happen.

Rebecca Nicholas, 44, of Coaldale, appeared before Judge Joseph J. Matika to enter the plea.After Assistant District Attorney Brian Gazo read the affidavit of probably cause in which police said she deliberately slammed on the brakes of the bus she was driving, Matika asked her with she agreed with those facts.At that point Nicholas said her foot slipped off the brake, and then added, it was an accident.She also claimed the bus was only going 5 mph at the time.Matika told her defense counsel, Attorney Matthew J. Mottola of the public defenders office, he couldn’t accept the plea because she was not owning up to the facts. He suggested Mottola speak to Nicholas privately, before continuing with the plea proceeding.Following a break, Mottola returned to say is client admits she slammed the brakes injuring the students. However, Mottola said his client disputes a quote attributed to her in which police said, after slamming on the brakes, she remarked, “Maybe next time you’ll listen and pay attention.”Matika then asked Nicholas again if the facts read by Gazo were correct, she replied they were.She said, “I did slam on the brakes.”According to the arrest report filed by Summit Hill police chief Joseph Fittos, Nicholas had been employed as a bus driver since September 2012.Fittos said Nicholas was driving Kistler Transportation bus 13 when she picked up students at the bus stop at the corner of Ludlow and Walnut streets at about 8 a.m. on March 12, 2015.As she pulled out, heading east, the bus monitor was talking to the students. The students were noisy and not paying attention. They were asked to quiet down, but would not.Nicholas “forcefully applied the brakes,” causing students to be thrown against the backs of the seats in front of them, injuring them.The students reported the incident upon their arrival at school. A school nurse examined them, and 17 students reported that they had bumped their heads or faces on seats, one hit a window and another had scrapes on an elbow and another had a bruised cheek.The students were sent home and their parents called. Fittos said parents called police to report the incident. Police interviewed students, their parents, and Nicholas before filing the charges.Matika told Nicholas under state sentencing guidelines, in the standard range, she faces anywhere between probation up to nine months in prison on each count. Despite a plea agreement with the district attorney’s office which indicates that the sentence on all 24 counts run concurrent to each other, Matika told her that he was not a party to that agreement and could run them concurrent, consecutively or a combination of the two at the time of sentencing.Matika deferred sentencing and ordered the adult probation office to prepare a presentence investigation report.Nicholas and Kistler Transportation, of New Ringgold, have been sued in civil court by the parents of two of the injured students. The suit was filed by Edward J. III and Margaret L. Smith, of Summit Hill, the parents of Falon L. and Emma J., who were passengers on the bus when the incident occurred. They are seeking damages of over $50,000. The case is pending in the county court.