Sarah Hicks allegedly punished the boy at Lindop Elementary School in Broadview in February 2012.
She has been charged in connection with the incident.
The suit says Hicks singled him out for talking and sealed his mouth with industrial grade tape.
The boy's mother, Princess Dempsey, says the tape was removed after he started crying, and she says it left welts on his face and tore out hair from his head.
"The mother said he is not the same child anymore," said Standish Willis, attorney for the Dempsey family. "He is not as outgoing; he used to talk about being an entertainer one day -- singing; she says he doesn't talk about that anymore."
Hicks is charged with battery.
School district lawyers say she has been on administrative leave without pay since the incident.
