You did the right thing mate,its good to see someone with some backbone in this day and age,good for you keep up the good work.
Wow, you yelled at them in Australian!
If this had happened in the US the kids would never act up again, having been yelled at by Crocodile Dundee (not a slur - we think Crocodile Dundee is cool!)
I guess it doesn’t have the same “umpf” as it would in America tho if everyone who yells in Australia sounds like Paul Hogan 
Good on you, tho. It’ll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow…
I’m a teacher, and I’ve worked with very rough kids. Believe me, the school will appreciate the information from you before they get it from the tram company.
I think that you did the right thing. That you worry about the consequences just shows that you have a conscience. When people don’t know the boundaries for a given situation they sometimes tend to edge farther and farther until they find the limit. You showed the bullies a limit and they will probably remember it.
I’m another one who was constantly picked on for just being different, and THANK YOU! I think you did fine.
Hmm… When did that movie come out? “Kids today” probably wouldn’t know what you meant!
“craarrrkaarrrdaahl whaaat, mom?”
Yay, Kam!
I understand why you might be concerned about them ramping up bullying the kid, but it’s more likely they’ll be jerkier to you. Which might be irritating, but you’ve demonstrated that you know how to handle it.
Take Back the Tram!
I’ve been in so many situations where in hindsight it was clear I really should have said something. At least you don’t have to deal with that feeling…
A. Absolutely, you did the right thing, for all of the reasons Siege already covered.
B. I’m generally leery of making other adults’ decisions for them. I like to provide them with information they don’t have and let them make their own decisions. If you call the school with the information you have but they don’t, then they make their own decision on how to handle these louts. Since they’re more-or-less the students’ parents (IME, kids who act like this tend to not have real strong parents at home), maybe they have information you don’t which would lead them to a different decision, y’know?
C. What’s a wolloper?
A cop.
You absolutely did the right thing. I have a son who is 13, and I appreciate people speaking up and calling him and his friends on their stupid behaviour when out in public.
I would encourage you to contact the school as soon as possible to make them aware of this inappropriate behaviour on the bus. Having dealt with parents of teens and preteens who act like this, I would let the school make the parents aware of the problem instead of trying to talk to them when you’re all trying to get from A to B in the morning. The kids bullying a younger kid seems the perfect opportunity to inform the school of **all ** of their jerky activities on the bus and get it stopped. These kids need to understand that they can’t get away with poor behaviour on the the bus. They are not anonymous there. It’s a great chance for you to affect the future of these kids in a positive way. I’d be surprised if the school were not very interested in hearing about this and doing what they can to correct it. I would also suggest that you share the contact information for the school with your co-bus riders and encourage any who speaks to you about the incident to call the school too. The way to make sure they don’t hassle you ever again is to keep speaking out. Get the message to the school.
So, thanks for what you’ve done already; I hope you choose to do even more.
She’s been my favorite fishwife for a while, now. 
Just a suggestion, if you fear reprisal, would be to surreptitiously snap pics of them with your cell phone and store them aside, just in case you’d need them later.
Kudos for standing up to them, by the way.
You did the right thing. The school will want to know.
Be prepared that they may harass you, and do call the cops if you need to. They’re not too young to have the fear of the authorities put in them if they start shit with you. And I say this as a teacher who loves kids, even the bad ones. What they need (and want, if only they knew it) is someone to set boundaries. It sucks that you, a random person on the tram, has to do it, but ain’t that always the way? The person with the most guts has to step up. It’s you-- congratulations. And I do mean that with the heartiest appreciation for you doing more than your share in this world.
tram operator??? why didn’t the operator say something?
in bermuda a school kid hit me with a crumpled ball, ( he missed the kid he was aiming for) the driver stopped the bus, delivered a scathing lecture, had all the misbehaving kidlets deliver verbal apologies to all the passingers (for misbehaving and the time taken to lecture them), and said he would come around after he was off shift to speak to the parents!!!
this was 6 years ago. i was gobsmaked. no septa driver in philly would do this. they will yell at bad bus manners or call the police to have people removed. which works for me.
Look, I’m a big, BIG fan of “old fashioned policing” in which kids are scared of cops (or any adult), and the cops say, “I can kick you in the arse now, or drive you home in a police car and talk to your DAD! What’s it to be?”
Now, these days the little shits all “know their rights”, so the tram operator is not going to put himself in a situation where he can get sued. It’s very unfortunate, but if I were driving that tram, I’d be tempted to just sit there too.
Report them to the school principal.
If it’s a private school, the kids will be punished enough to recognise that this is not the sort of behaviour that will be tolerated.
Did you do the right thing?
Yes. Yes you did.
I would do the same.
How could yelling “OI!!” at a bunch of punk-asses in an Austrailian accent ever be the wrong thing?
You did the right thing 
as a rather “bookish” kid, I suffered the “attentions” of the muscleheaded, knuckledragging jocks in school, I found quite early on, that adopting a “psycho” persona made them leave me alone, as they were never sure when i was going to “snap”, if they only knew it was all an act… 
Good work.
That’s the sort of action that can bring good karma too.
Years ago, I was on a first date with a young lady when we saw three older kids follwing and hitting a younger kid leaving the movie theater. I told them to knock it off, and they tried to pretend they were going to fight me…it wasn’t very plausible, they were small and inexperienced and I was an adult.
My young lady was mortified that I would make such a scene in public. She never went out with me again. In fact, I never saw her talking to me or anyone else about anything substantive at all. She seemed to have no interests besides television and money. I concluded I was much better off. Eventually she dated and married the boss’s son.
May you be every bit as well rewarded.
Sailboat
You did good! Call their school even if you think it won’t achieve anything - at least you brought it to someone’s attention, and it’s up to them if they follow it up or drop it. At least it might find it’s way into a file and be useful if their bullying does ever ramp up to show a history of the behavior. Also consider calling the primary school and telling them what you witnessed - they might be interested to know one of their students is being harassed on the way to school.